Ballentine Partners LLC Has $11.80 Million Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 37,323 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $11,795,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America upped their price target on Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $332.81.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s 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 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.0 %

NYSE:V opened at $323.55 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $313.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $289.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a market cap of $602.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $325.74.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Visa 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.