Verity & Verity LLC Increases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Verity & Verity LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 137.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,761 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 2,758 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,505,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of V. Unionview LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $368,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $475,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $900,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, St. Louis Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the third quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on V shares. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $319.97 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $321.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $313.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $288.59.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.