Vertex Planning Partners LLC Takes Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Vertex Planning Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 797 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $252,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Slagle Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Slagle Financial LLC now owns 6,822 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,156,000 after purchasing an additional 338 shares during the period. denkapparat Operations GmbH acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $633,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd increased its stake in Visa by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 309,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $97,558,000 after purchasing an additional 9,641 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Visa by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 826,929 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $261,343,000 after purchasing an additional 75,255 shares during the period. Finally, Broadway Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $419,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE V opened at $349.82 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $649.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.26, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $343.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $314.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 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.