Ballast Inc. Purchases 1,129 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ballast Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 38.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,050 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,129 shares during the quarter. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,280,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

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

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $319.97 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $321.61. The business’s 50 day moving average is $313.41 and its 200-day moving average is $288.73.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on V shares. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

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.