Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Bought by Augustine Asset Management Inc.

Augustine Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 94.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,825 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 2,348 shares during the quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,525,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $24,475,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $355.52 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $323.36 and its 200-day moving average is $297.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $660.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $356.08. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on V. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

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.