Mengis Capital Management Inc. Acquires New Shares in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Mengis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 846 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $267,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on V. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $350.61 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15. The business has a 50 day moving average of $331.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $304.27. The company has a market capitalization of $651.36 billion, a PE ratio of 35.34, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.