MFA Wealth Services Makes New Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

MFA Wealth Services acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,805 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $570,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH grew its position in Visa by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 171,556 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $54,093,000 after buying an additional 7,655 shares during the period. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $282,000. Crown Oak Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Crown Oak Advisors LLC now owns 64,016 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $20,231,000 after purchasing an additional 2,668 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,259 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,874,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 50.1% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,522,000 after buying an additional 6,883 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $330.20 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $331.09. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $314.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $290.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $615.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Visa from $322.00 to $368.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.52.

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.