Lynch & Associates IN Buys 687 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Lynch & Associates IN grew its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,767 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 687 shares during the period. Lynch & Associates IN’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,455,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the second quarter worth about $39,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on V. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $330.85.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, 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 transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock traded down $4.89 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $307.71. 6,659,452 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,485,750. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The company has a market capitalization of $573.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.62, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $311.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $286.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

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.