United Asset Strategies Inc. Acquires 253 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

United Asset Strategies Inc. raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,511 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,997,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Financial Freedom LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC grew its position in Visa by 545.5% during the third quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $272.69 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $279.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $262.56. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.14 and a 1-year high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $500.80 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.18 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Raymond James raised their target price on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup raised their target price on Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.43.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,511 shares of company stock worth $15,131,081 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.