Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 15.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,121 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 285 shares during the quarter. Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $670,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Susquehanna upped their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $319.97 on Tuesday. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $313.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $288.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $596.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $321.61.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. 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%.

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.