West Bancorporation Inc. Takes $212,000 Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

West Bancorporation Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 671 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,847,000 after buying an additional 4,198 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 5.2% in the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after acquiring an additional 20,023 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.3 %

Visa stock opened at $342.05 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $351.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $637.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $317.74 and a 200 day moving average of $293.12. 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 (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.27.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’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. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Visa

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.