Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. Buys 285 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 15.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,121 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 285 shares during the quarter. Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $670,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arbor Trust Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Arbor Trust Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,688 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,378,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 8,606 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,720,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Stillwater Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Stillwater Capital Advisors LLC now owns 61,336 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $19,385,000 after purchasing an additional 754 shares in the last quarter. Clarius Group LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Clarius Group LLC now owns 18,095 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,719,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,847,000 after purchasing an additional 4,198 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $319.97 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $313.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $288.73. The company has a market capitalization of $596.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Mizuho raised their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. 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.