Hartford Investment Management Co. Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Hartford Investment Management Co. lifted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 106,753 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,691 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 1.1% of Hartford Investment Management Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $33,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Community Financial Services Group LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 42,485 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $13,427,000 after buying an additional 412 shares during the period. Wealth Advisors Northwest LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $349,000. Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. now owns 17,905 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,659,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Schear Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 9,596 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,033,000 after acquiring an additional 517 shares during the period. Finally, Warther Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $355.52 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $356.08. The firm has a market cap of $660.47 billion, a PE ratio of 35.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company’s 50 day moving average is $323.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $297.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Visa’s payout ratio is 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.