Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Holdings Lifted by True North Advisors LLC

True North Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 261.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,576 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,712 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 1.3% of True North Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. True North Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,555,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $334.58.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $330.20 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $314.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $289.98. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $331.09. The company has a market capitalization of $615.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.94, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.