L & S Advisors Inc Buys 15,594 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

L & S Advisors Inc grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1,695.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,514 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,594 shares during the period. L & S Advisors Inc’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,219,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after buying an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in Visa by 110.5% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 27,957 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,687,000 after buying an additional 14,675 shares during the period. White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Visa by 15.8% in the third quarter. White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,278 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,726,000 after acquiring an additional 856 shares during the period. Finally, Circle Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.6% during the third quarter. Circle Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,910 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,625,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on V. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three 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 a consensus target price of $355.84.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $342.62 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $343.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $315.27. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.