Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 88,399 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,338 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.4% of Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $27,938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,983 shares of company stock worth $7,213,146 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on V. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America raised their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $349.27 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $351.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $319.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $294.37. The company has a market cap of $650.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.21, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (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%. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.