Ritholtz Wealth Management Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 59,124 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 396 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 0.6% of Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest position. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $15,393,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. GoalVest Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 1,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $317,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 3,143 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $818,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.4% in the second quarter. HWG Holdings LP now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Parker Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Parker Financial LLC now owns 925 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $241,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Powers Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.1% in the third quarter. Powers Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,101 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $253,000 after buying an additional 43 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 NYSE V traded down $0.24 during trading on Thursday, hitting $278.78. The company had a trading volume of 5,844,191 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,650,746. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $279.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $258.66. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.14 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $511.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.18 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 47,311 shares of company stock worth $12,832,129. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $295.82.

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.