Empirical Finance LLC Has $13.84 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Empirical Finance LLC lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 43,775 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 92 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 0.8% of Empirical Finance LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $13,835,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $454,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Phoenix Wealth Advisors raised its position in shares of Visa by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 964 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $305,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Unionview LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.5% in the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. Forza Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Presilium Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Visa by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $475,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $351.26 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $321.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $296.19. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $351.90. The firm has a market cap of $652.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company 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 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Insider Transactions at Visa

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 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is 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.