Chung Wu Investment Group LLC Invests $1.43 Million in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Chung Wu Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,531 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,432,000. Visa makes up about 1.4% of Chung Wu Investment Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in Visa by 48.5% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on V shares. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $343.81 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $335.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $307.80. 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 has a market capitalization of $638.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.