Leuthold Group LLC Purchases 900 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Leuthold Group LLC boosted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 23,568 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 900 shares during the period. Leuthold Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,448,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,475,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of V stock opened at $348.27 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $329.14 and a 200-day moving average of $302.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $357.15.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.