Fermata Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Fermata Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 36.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,648 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,247 shares during the period. Fermata Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,469,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital Advisors Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,052 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,757,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Retireful LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $2,335,000. JGP Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. JGP Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,762 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,189,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its position in Visa by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 58,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $18,437,000 after buying an additional 766 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Morris Harris LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Sanders Morris Harris LLC now owns 9,623 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,052,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $319.97 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $313.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $288.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Macquarie upped their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

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.