Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Holdings Boosted by Sawyer & Company Inc

Sawyer & Company Inc raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,001 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Visa comprises 2.6% of Sawyer & Company Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Sawyer & Company Inc’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,953,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 79.0% in the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on V shares. Citigroup increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $317.10 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $312.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $287.85. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The company has a market capitalization of $590.71 billion, a PE ratio of 32.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.