Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Position Lifted by Meridian Financial Partners LLC

Meridian Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 1.4% of Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position. Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,653,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its stake in shares of Visa by 79.0% during the 3rd quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on V. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays boosted their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Up 2.4 %

V opened at $316.45 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $589.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $312.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $287.65. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $321.61.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.