QRG Capital Management Inc. Grows Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 234,873 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 19,133 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 0.8% of QRG Capital Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $74,229,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of V stock opened at $363.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $674.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $333.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $305.34. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $364.00.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group upped their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa 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.