WealthTrust Asset Management LLC Invests $249,000 in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

WealthTrust Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 789 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. GWN Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $1,346,000. Altus Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 7,187 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,271,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 46.6% in the 4th quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $352,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 21,516 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,800,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greenwich Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $410,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:V opened at $331.72 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $337.96 and its 200-day moving average is $310.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The firm has a market cap of $616.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

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.