Wealth Alliance Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wealth Alliance increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,221 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 269 shares during the quarter. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,182,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BCK Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,717,000. Markel Corp increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the first quarter. Markel Corp now owns 961,105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $213,144,000 after purchasing an additional 3,065 shares during the period. AMI Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at about $2,323,000. Ergoteles LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the first quarter worth about $538,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in Visa during the first quarter worth about $1,496,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on V shares. Barclays raised their target price on Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Redburn Atlantic reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wedbush increased their price target on Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $298.43.

Visa Price Performance

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

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.