Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Acquires 988 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 26,704 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 988 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 1.1% of Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $8,440,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna increased their target price on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $352.00 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $357.15. The company has a market cap of $653.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.48, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $330.49 and a 200 day moving average of $303.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.