Skopos Labs Inc. Invests $2.78 Million in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Skopos Labs Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 10,679 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $2,780,000. Visa makes up about 1.3% of Skopos Labs Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of V. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 222.1% in the 3rd quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 11,165 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,568,000 after purchasing an additional 7,699 shares during the period. Heritage Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Heritage Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,134 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $261,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Certuity LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Certuity LLC now owns 9,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,177,000 after acquiring an additional 597 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC raised its position in Visa by 23.9% during the 3rd quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 37,943 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,727,000 after purchasing an additional 7,325 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hartline Investment Corp raised its position in Visa by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Hartline Investment Corp now owns 24,247 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,577,000 after purchasing an additional 2,341 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Macquarie boosted their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.76.

Visa Stock Performance

V traded up $0.26 during trading on Friday, reaching $274.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,316,397 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,322,635. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $276.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $269.49. The company has a market capitalization of $502.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.14 and a 52-week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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 paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 34,402 shares of company stock worth $9,559,382 over the last quarter. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.