Meridiem Investment Management Ltd. Invests $104,000 in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Meridiem Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 330 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $104,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $356.04 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $661.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The business has a 50-day moving average of $326.05 and a 200 day moving average of $300.04. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $356.74.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. Macquarie increased their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen increased their price target on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

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.