Empirical Asset Management LLC Acquires 63,871 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Empirical Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 128.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 113,750 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 63,871 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 1.1% of Empirical Asset Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Empirical Asset Management LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $35,950,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 77,764 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $20,411,000 after acquiring an additional 3,306 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.3% during the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,857 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 155,918 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $40,924,000 after purchasing an additional 7,015 shares during the last quarter. Trust Investment Advisors boosted its position in shares of Visa by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Investment Advisors now owns 4,958 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,301,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 59,630 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $15,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $331.92.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V traded up $2.72 on Friday, reaching $319.97. 5,746,152 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,703,089. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $313.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $288.06. 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 firm has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $321.61.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm 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 an increase from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Visa's payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.