Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. Has $6.90 Million Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 21,846 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 1.7% of Benedict Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,904,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $351.26 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $321.08 and a 200-day moving average of $296.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $652.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $351.90.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.