Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. Increases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,427 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 475 shares during the period. Visa comprises 0.8% of Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,719,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 294,904 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $93,201,000 after purchasing an additional 33,926 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 18.6% in the 4th quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 2,516,435 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $795,294,000 after buying an additional 395,372 shares in the last quarter. Martin Currie Ltd. grew its stake in Visa by 193.9% in the 4th quarter. Martin Currie Ltd. now owns 143,859 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $45,465,000 after acquiring an additional 94,913 shares during the last quarter. Joseph Group Capital Management increased its holdings in Visa by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Joseph Group Capital Management now owns 15,844 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,007,000 after acquiring an additional 1,422 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Life Planning Partners Inc acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $292,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of V stock opened at $342.62 on Monday. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $343.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $315.49. The stock has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on V. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. 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.