Client 1ST Advisory Group LLC Purchases New Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Client 1ST Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,001 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $633,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Grove Bank & Trust increased its holdings in Visa by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 18,415 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,820,000 after acquiring an additional 726 shares during the last quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $1,215,000. Ballast Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 38.7% in the fourth quarter. Ballast Inc. now owns 4,050 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,280,000 after buying an additional 1,129 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Advisors Inc. now owns 4,855 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,534,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. now owns 2,121 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $670,000 after buying an additional 285 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $331.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:V traded up $4.14 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $323.76. The stock had a trading volume of 5,652,636 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,746,346. The firm's 50 day moving average is $313.59 and its 200-day moving average is $289.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $603.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $324.58. 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 (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa's quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is a boost from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa's payout ratio 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.