Avalon Capital Management Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Avalon Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,543 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the quarter. Avalon Capital Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,068,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $454,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Vicus Capital increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 1,032 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $326,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:V opened at $350.61 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $331.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $304.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $651.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.