M&G Plc Invests $327.80 Million in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

M&G Plc acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,174,909 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $327,800,000. Visa comprises about 2.0% of M&G Plc’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Nadler Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $495,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Towerpoint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $216,000. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $3,427,000. Richelieu Gestion SA acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $307,000. Finally, Cooper Financial Group boosted its stake in Visa by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 7,926 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,064,000 after buying an additional 476 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:V traded down $3.69 on Friday, hitting $265.46. 6,839,933 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,540,275. The stock has a market capitalization of $485.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $227.68 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $272.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $274.22.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the business’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 value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on V. TD Cowen began coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Visa from $302.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price objective on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.72.

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.