Wedmont Private Capital Boosts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 24,354 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,137 shares during the quarter. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,494,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter valued at $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa by 101.4% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter worth about $39,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.85.

Visa Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:V traded down $2.11 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $305.60. 2,779,712 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,090,134. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $312.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $287.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $569.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.41, a PEG 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

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.