Stephens Inc. AR Purchases 1,008 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Stephens Inc. AR grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 128,706 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Visa were worth $40,676,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of V. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Phoenix Wealth Advisors increased its stake in Visa by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 964 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $305,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Unionview LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $368,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. Finally, Presilium Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $475,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna upped their price target on Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $350.88 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $321.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $296.88. 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 $651.85 billion, a PE ratio of 35.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $352.12.

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 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.