Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by United Asset Strategies Inc.

United Asset Strategies Inc. boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,511 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 253 shares during the period. United Asset Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,997,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 116,608.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after purchasing an additional 24,483,134 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $3,067,232,000. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Visa by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,621,287,000 after purchasing an additional 5,864,340 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,233,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,710,188 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Visa by 3.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,435,339,000 after purchasing an additional 2,572,159 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Up 0.5 %

V opened at $272.69 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.14 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96. The business has a 50-day moving average of $279.80 and a 200-day moving average of $262.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The company has a market capitalization of $500.80 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The company had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.55 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.18 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. Citigroup raised their target price on Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $298.43.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.