Private Advisor Group LLC Buys 4,663 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Private Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 174,422 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,663 shares during the quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $55,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Perspectives Inc increased its stake in shares of Visa by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 1,353 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp increased its stake in shares of Visa by 54.1% in the fourth quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 237,070 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $74,924,000 after purchasing an additional 83,215 shares during the period. Summit Place Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Summit Place Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,319,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Vista Capital Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $314,000. Finally, Legacy Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $356,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on V. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of V opened at $348.27 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $647.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $357.15. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $329.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $302.03.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.