Wedmont Private Capital Acquires 2,137 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wedmont Private Capital lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,354 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,137 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Unionview LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $900,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. St. Louis Trust Co increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of V traded down $2.11 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $305.60. 2,779,712 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,090,134. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $321.61. The business has a 50-day moving average of $312.14 and a 200-day moving average of $287.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $569.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on V. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company 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.