127,178 Shares in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Purchased by Avanza Fonder AB

Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 127,178 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $40,193,000. Visa makes up 1.2% of Avanza Fonder AB’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 101.4% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $319.97 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $313.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $288.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $321.61. The company has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business posted $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on V. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

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.