PFW Advisors LLC Takes Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 8,698 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $2,749,000. Visa accounts for approximately 0.8% of PFW Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth about $616,000. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC increased its position in Visa by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 5,034.0% in the 3rd quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,499,000 after purchasing an additional 55,273 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays boosted their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $330.85.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $306.59 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $312.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $287.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $571.14 billion, a PE ratio of 31.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.