West Bancorporation Inc. Makes New $212,000 Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

West Bancorporation Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 671 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $454,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 964 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $305,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Unionview LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 1.5% during the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $368,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Presilium Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $475,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:V opened at $342.05 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $637.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $351.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $317.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $293.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results 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 return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on V. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Visa from $322.00 to $368.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Four equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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.

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.