Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. Acquires 44 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,688 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 1.9% of Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,222,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 73.6% during the fourth quarter. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC now owns 9,860 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,116,000 after purchasing an additional 4,179 shares during the period. TTP Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 51.6% during the fourth quarter. TTP Investments Inc. now owns 1,261 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 113.0% during the fourth quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 245 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $77,000 after buying an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC now owns 54,292 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $17,158,000 after buying an additional 5,220 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC now owns 10,751 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,398,000 after buying an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of V stock opened at $334.16 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $314.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $335.49. The company has a market capitalization of $622.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.34, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. Citigroup raised their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.52.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.