Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,423 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 3,659 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,093,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 15.3% during the 4th quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 98,442 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,112,000 after buying an additional 13,052 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors boosted its position in shares of Visa by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 98,889 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,253,000 after acquiring an additional 7,012 shares during the period. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,669 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,744,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the period. Biltmore Family Office LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Biltmore Family Office LLC now owns 6,070 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,918,000 after acquiring an additional 282 shares during the period. Finally, Venture Visionary Partners LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Venture Visionary Partners LLC now owns 93,543 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,567,000 after purchasing an additional 1,483 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 134,585 shares of company stock worth $45,821,697. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $346.49 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $345.14 and its 200 day moving average is $316.58. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $643.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.93, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

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.