Bank of Nova Scotia Acquires 20,389 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bank of Nova Scotia grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 426,549 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 20,389 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia's holdings in Visa were worth $134,884,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $724,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,292,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. now owns 7,283 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,302,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays upped their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Trading Up 2.8 %

V stock traded up $9.08 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $333.69. 6,802,196 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,281,557. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The stock's fifty day moving average is $342.40 and its 200-day moving average is $318.76. The company has a market cap of $619.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.