Global Wealth Strategies & Associates Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Global Wealth Strategies & Associates grew its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 27.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates’ holdings in Visa were worth $72,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $616,000. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after buying an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC grew its position in Visa by 5,034.0% during the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,499,000 after buying an additional 55,273 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Susquehanna increased their target price on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Mizuho raised their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America upped their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Macquarie raised their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.41.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.8 %

V traded down $2.52 during trading on Thursday, hitting $313.52. 2,393,772 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,913,891. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $308.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $285.08. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $584.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.22, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Visa 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.