Natural Investments LLC Takes Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Natural Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,626,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $341.07 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $633.63 billion, a PE ratio of 34.38, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $336.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $309.43.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several recent research reports. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Company 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.