Strong Tower Advisory Services Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Strong Tower Advisory Services raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,865 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 624 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 1.7% of Strong Tower Advisory Services’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Strong Tower Advisory Services’ holdings in Visa were worth $6,594,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,847,000 after acquiring an additional 4,198 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the third quarter valued at $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 5.2% in the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after acquiring an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $323.76 on Wednesday. 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 cap of $603.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.27, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $324.58. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $313.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $289.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on V. Macquarie boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

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.