AlphaStar Capital Management LLC Increases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

AlphaStar Capital Management LLC grew its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 11.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 14,241 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,439 shares during the period. AlphaStar Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,501,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 81,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $25,682,000 after purchasing an additional 8,692 shares in the last quarter. Hobart Private Capital LLC raised its position in Visa by 46.0% in the 4th quarter. Hobart Private Capital LLC now owns 1,126 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $356,000 after buying an additional 355 shares during the last quarter. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. now owns 5,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,582,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 74,047 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,402,000 after acquiring an additional 1,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hendershot Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Hendershot Investments Inc. now owns 67,035 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,186,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $351.26 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $321.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $296.19. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $351.90. The company has a market cap of $652.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 over the last 90 days. 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.