Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Bought by Confluence Wealth Services Inc.

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,575 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 660 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,425,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $348.26 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $351.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market cap of $648.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $320.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $295.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’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 sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. 0.13% 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.