Hardin Capital Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 720 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Hardin Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE:V opened at $344.95 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $341.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $314.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $640.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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 value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. 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 research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

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.