Traynor Capital Management Inc. Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Traynor Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 40,243 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 468 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.1% of Traynor Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Traynor Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $10,477,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GoalVest Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 1,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $317,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Sunflower Bank N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 3,143 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $818,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 18.4% in the second quarter. HWG Holdings LP now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Parker Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Parker Financial LLC now owns 925 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $241,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Powers Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 4.1% in the third quarter. Powers Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,101 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V traded up $0.06 on Friday, reaching $279.08. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,844,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,182,342. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.14 and a 52-week high of $290.96. The company has a market cap of $512.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.12, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $279.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $258.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.18 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.94%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,311 shares of company stock worth $12,832,129 in the last 90 days. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, December 5th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $280.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.82.

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.