Welch Group LLC Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Welch Group LLC lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 31,446 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 308 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,915,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of V. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after acquiring an additional 123,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,168,096,000 after acquiring an additional 670,590 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,983 shares of company stock worth $7,213,146. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price objective (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $347.28 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $351.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $646.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.01, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $319.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $294.76.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.