Ellsworth Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,447 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 464 shares during the quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,986,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on V. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

Visa stock opened at $319.97 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $321.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $313.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $288.73.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.