Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 18.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,317 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the quarter. Stegent Equity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $416,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on V shares. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note 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 research note on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho lifted 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Trading Up 2.1 %

V opened at $363.33 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $674.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $364.00. The business’s 50 day moving average is $333.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $305.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio 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.