Martin Capital Advisors LLP Buys 280 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Martin Capital Advisors LLP increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,501 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 280 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 2.3% of Martin Capital Advisors LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Martin Capital Advisors LLP’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,635,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 26.9% during the third quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 2,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $603,000 after buying an additional 464 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional raised its stake in shares of Visa by 22.4% during the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 52,998 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $14,572,000 after buying an additional 9,705 shares during the last quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.4% during the third quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 8,367 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,301,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 566,729 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $155,822,000 after buying an additional 13,318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Iams Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 28.4% in the third quarter. Iams Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,475 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $406,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays upped 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. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This 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 quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $350.88 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $352.12. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $321.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $296.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $651.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.37, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Visa 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.