Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Boosted by Schear Investment Advisers LLC

Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,596 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 517 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 1.6% of Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,033,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after purchasing an additional 123,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,168,096,000 after purchasing an additional 670,590 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Visa Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $355.52 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $660.47 billion, a PE ratio of 35.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $356.08. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $323.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $297.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.