Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Holdings Increased by Ballast Inc.

Ballast Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 38.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,050 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 1,129 shares during the quarter. Ballast Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $1,280,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. 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 research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Visa Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of V traded up $4.14 on Tuesday, hitting $323.76. 5,652,636 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,746,346. The stock's 50 day moving average is $313.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $289.09. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $603.12 billion, a P/E 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.

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. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. Visa's revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $0.59 dividend. 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 0.73%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.