SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. Increases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,540 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.1% of SS&H Financial Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. SS&H Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,016,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of V. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its stake in Visa by 27.0% in the second quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 9,860 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096 shares during the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 217,597 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $57,113,000 after purchasing an additional 1,078 shares during the period. Charles Lim Capital Ltd lifted its stake in Visa by 225.0% in the second quarter. Charles Lim Capital Ltd now owns 325,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $85,303,000 after purchasing an additional 225,000 shares during the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 8.1% during the second quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,593 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $418,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, Lingotto Investment Management LLP increased its position in Visa by 11.2% in the second quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP now owns 32,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,490,000 after buying an additional 3,253 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 2.4 %

NYSE V opened at $316.45 on Thursday. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $312.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $287.65. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $321.61. The company has a market capitalization of $589.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.52, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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 value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. Citigroup upped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

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.