Howe & Rusling Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Howe & Rusling Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 31,278 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,411 shares during the quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,885,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,813,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 33.0% during the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 91,427 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,895,000 after purchasing an additional 22,678 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 805,023 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $254,419,000 after purchasing an additional 14,668 shares in the last quarter. Moment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $491,000. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 152,442 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $48,178,000 after purchasing an additional 2,835 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.2 %

Visa stock opened at $344.05 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The firm has a market cap of $639.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $342.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $314.42. 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 posted its 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on V. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.