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

Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 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 biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd 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 own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

V traded up $2.72 during trading on Friday, reaching $319.97. 5,746,152 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,703,089. 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 stock's 50-day moving average is $313.41 and its 200 day moving average is $288.59. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $321.61. The stock 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.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced 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 return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 is an increase from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction 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 that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Macquarie upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $331.92.

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.