Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC

ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,331 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $607,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,710,188 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after buying an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at $358,349,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in Visa by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,929,979 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $903,955,000 after purchasing an additional 999,167 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,983,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $916,174,000 after purchasing an additional 871,439 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were 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 approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,278,698 in the last three months. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V traded up $0.88 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $268.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,862,018 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,930,902. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $278.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $265.42. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The stock has a market cap of $493.08 billion, a PE ratio of 30.00, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on V shares. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Macquarie lifted their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.00.

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.