Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. Boosts Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,427 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 475 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 0.8% of Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,719,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its position in Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,576,366,000 after acquiring an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. Encompass More Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $256,000. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY now owns 120,643 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,171,000 after purchasing an additional 567 shares during the period. Finally, Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in Visa by 2.5% in the third quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 13,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,803,000 after purchasing an additional 338 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group lifted their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $342.62 on Monday. 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 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The stock has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $343.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $315.49.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.