Welch Group LLC Grows Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Welch Group LLC lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 31,446 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 308 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,915,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 964 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $305,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Unionview LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 1.5% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Forza Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.9% during the 4th 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 during the period. Finally, Presilium Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $475,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

V opened at $347.28 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $351.25. The business’s 50 day moving average is $319.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $294.76. The firm has a market cap of $646.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 have sold a total of 21,983 shares of company stock valued at $7,213,146 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. 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. Mizuho increased their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Visa Company 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.