Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. Purchases 859 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 16.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,970 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 859 shares during the period. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.'s holdings in Visa were worth $1,845,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Visa by 2.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,833,981,000 after buying an additional 345,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after buying an additional 312,286 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:V traded up $2.72 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $319.97. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,746,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,703,089. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $321.61. The business's 50-day moving average is $313.41 and its 200-day moving average is $288.73.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 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 $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $331.92.

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 stock was 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. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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 corporate 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.