Apollon Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 42.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 77,153 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,158 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $24,383,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Affiance Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Affiance Financial LLC now owns 954 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $262,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Martin Capital Advisors LLP increased its stake in Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Martin Capital Advisors LLP now owns 11,221 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,085,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH raised its position in Visa by 1.0% during the third quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 163,901 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $45,065,000 after purchasing an additional 1,575 shares during the period. Thomasville National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 113,108 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,099,000 after purchasing an additional 3,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 75.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 19,554 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,376,000 after purchasing an additional 8,422 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

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 stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $351.26 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $351.90. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $321.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $296.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market cap of $652.56 billion, a PE ratio of 35.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.