Gradient Investments LLC Increases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Gradient Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 22.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 148,713 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,686 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.0% of Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $46,999,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on V. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Macquarie upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $335.52.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of V stock opened at $330.20 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $331.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $615.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $314.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $290.59.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’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 value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by 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.