Is Visa Inc (V) A Good Stock To Buy?

Hedge funds are not perfect. They have their bad picks just like everyone else. Valeant, a stock hedge funds have loved, lost 79% during the last 12 months ending in November 21. Although hedge funds are not perfect, their consensus picks do deliver solid returns, however. Our data show the top 30 mid-cap stocks among the best performing hedge funds yielded an average return of 18% in the same time period, vs. a gain of 7.6% for the S&P 500 Index. Because hedge funds have a lot of resources and their consensus picks do well, we pay attention to what they think. In this article, we analyze what the elite funds think of Visa Inc (NYSE:V).

Visa Inc (NYSE:V) investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s elite money managers recently. At the end of this article we will also compare Visa to other stocks including Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK), The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD), and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) to get a better sense of its popularity.

To most traders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, old financial tools of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation today, We look at the top tier of this club, about 700 funds. These money managers oversee most of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by paying attention to their finest stock picks, Insider Monkey has identified various investment strategies that have historically outstripped the market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per annum for a decade in their back tests.

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Keeping this in mind, let’s review the latest action surrounding Visa Inc (NYSE:V).

What have hedge funds been doing with Visa Inc (NYSE:V)?

At the end of June, a total of 115 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, down by 3% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management has the most valuable position in Visa Inc (NYSE:V), worth close to $1.22 billion, accounting for 2.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Berkshire Hathaway, managed by Warren Buffett, which holds a $873.5 million position; 0.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions consist of Alex Snow’s Lansdowne Partners and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.