U S Wealth Group LLC. Invests $2.40 Million in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

U S Wealth Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 7,580 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $2,396,000. Visa makes up approximately 1.8% of U S Wealth Group LLC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Down 7.6 %

V stock opened at $313.46 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $345.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $317.27. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The company has a market cap of $582.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on V shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America increased their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa 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.