Sovran Advisors LLC Takes Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sovran Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,803 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,175,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Visa by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 964 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $305,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unionview LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie lifted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $351.43 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $322.53 and its 200 day moving average is $297.52. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $352.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market cap of $652.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was 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 approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.