Meridian Financial Partners LLC Boosts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Meridian Financial Partners LLC raised its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.4% of Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,653,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its position in shares of Visa by 79.0% in the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays increased their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $316.45 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $312.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $287.65. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $589.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.