Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. Makes New $1.75 Million Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 6,728 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,752,000. Visa makes up 1.6% of Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 66.2% during the 4th quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 236 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the period. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1,019.2% in the third quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Macquarie upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $303.00.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:V traded up $0.73 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $277.19. 8,996,277 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,922,005. The company has a market capitalization of $506.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.14 and a twelve month high of $290.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company’s 50 day moving average is $277.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $266.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

About Visa

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.