Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Raises Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 26,704 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 988 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 1.1% of Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $8,440,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after buying an additional 123,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,168,096,000 after buying an additional 670,590 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Macquarie lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $352.00 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $357.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $330.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $303.94. The stock has a market cap of $653.93 billion, a PE ratio of 35.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

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.