Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,195 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 566 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.4% of Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $8,279,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the period. King Wealth Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares during the period. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Down 0.9 %

V stock opened at $336.51 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $340.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $313.06. The company has a market capitalization of $625.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective 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. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.