Auxano Advisors LLC Increases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Auxano Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,274 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 0.8% of Auxano Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Auxano Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,247,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of V. Keystone Wealth Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 4,198 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,327,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Garrett Wealth Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in Visa by 65.8% in the fourth quarter. Garrett Wealth Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,650 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $522,000 after purchasing an additional 655 shares in the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 23,880 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,258,000 after buying an additional 2,618 shares during the last quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. raised its stake in Visa by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. now owns 118,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $37,328,000 after buying an additional 3,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LGT Group Foundation lifted its holdings in Visa by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 337,180 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $106,562,000 after buying an additional 22,170 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 0.3 %

Visa stock opened at $361.60 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $671.77 billion, a PE ratio of 36.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $333.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $306.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.