Castleark Management LLC Buys 7,718 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Castleark Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 216,911 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 7,718 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 2.3% of Castleark Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Castleark Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $77,014,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,185,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the second quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,413 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,276,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Academy Capital Management increased its stake in Visa by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Academy Capital Management now owns 860 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $301,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID raised its holdings in Visa by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 289 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $101,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Hsbc Global Res raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. UBS Group set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. HSBC upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $335.00 to $389.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $402.52.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $830,432.64. This represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $347.83 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $633.65 billion, a PE ratio of 34.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $337.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $345.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $299.00 and a one year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s payout ratio is 26.25%.

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.