Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by Guinness Asset Management LTD

Guinness Asset Management LTD increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 141,193 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,740 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 0.8% of Guinness Asset Management LTD’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Guinness Asset Management LTD’s holdings in Visa were worth $44,620,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC lifted 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 valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $323.76 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $324.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $603.12 billion, a PE ratio of 33.27, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $313.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $289.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

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.