Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC Buys 667 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,540 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 667 shares during the period. Visa makes up 0.8% of Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,908,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the second quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 101.4% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.85.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $312.74 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $582.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.14, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $321.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $311.80 and its 200 day moving average is $286.63.

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. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa 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 transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.