Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Purchases 6,370 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 50.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,937 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 6,370 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,985,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Visa by 101.4% in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $368.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $335.52.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $330.20 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $314.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.59. 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 has a market capitalization of $615.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $331.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 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.