Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Trims Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 803,052 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 59 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $253,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the second quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, 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 value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of V stock traded down $4.23 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $308.37. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,706,383 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,646,486. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $311.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $286.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $574.45 billion, a PE ratio of 31.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.85.

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.