Abacus Planning Group Inc. Acquires 122 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Abacus Planning Group Inc. grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,630 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the period. Abacus Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Ieq Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 179,101 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,603,000 after purchasing an additional 11,647 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $375,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. TBH Global Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. TBH Global Asset Management LLC now owns 10,508 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,321,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. CogentBlue Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $226,000. Finally, Parthenon LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 19.6% in the 4th quarter. Parthenon LLC now owns 1,617 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $511,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Macquarie boosted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $348.27 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $647.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business’s 50-day moving average is $329.14 and its 200-day moving average is $302.03. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $357.15.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

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.