Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Grows Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 86,656 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,376 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 1.4% of Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $22,561,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. GoalVest Advisory LLC increased its stake in Visa by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 1,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $317,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,668 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $433,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. increased its stake in Visa by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 3,143 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $818,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP increased its stake in Visa by 18.4% in the second quarter. HWG Holdings LP now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parker Financial LLC increased its stake in Visa by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Parker Financial LLC now owns 925 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $241,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of V opened at $272.69 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $500.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $216.14 and a one year high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $279.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $262.56.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.18 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on V shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. TD Cowen started coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target for the company. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $298.43.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,511 shares of company stock worth $15,131,081 over the last quarter. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.