Diversify Advisory Services LLC Decreases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Diversify Advisory Services LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 11.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,420 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,405 shares during the quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,822,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $323.76 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $603.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.27, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $324.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $313.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.09.

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, beating 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.