Ascent Capital Management LLC Invests $369,000 in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ascent Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 1,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $369,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its position in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group raised its stake in shares of Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares in the last quarter. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $331.72 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $337.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $310.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $616.26 billion, a PE ratio of 33.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 103,855 shares of company stock worth $35,165,827 over the last quarter. Company 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.