Avion Wealth Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Avion Wealth lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 478 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 38 shares during the quarter. Avion Wealth’s holdings in Visa were worth $151,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Creative Planning increased its holdings in Visa by 2.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 566,729 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $155,822,000 after buying an additional 13,318 shares during the period. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in Visa by 10.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $566,153,000 after buying an additional 199,440 shares during the period. Ironwood Financial llc purchased a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $230,000. Naviter Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 0.5% during the third quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 11,699 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,217,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Finally, Perigon Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $34,713,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. 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 research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE V opened at $353.73 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $657.15 billion, a PE ratio of 35.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a fifty day moving average of $324.29 and a 200 day moving average of $298.30. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $356.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

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 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%. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value 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 approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa 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 directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. Corporate 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.