Fermata Advisors LLC Buys 1,247 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Fermata Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 36.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,648 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 1,247 shares during the period. Fermata Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $1,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its stake in Visa by 79.0% in the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on V. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Four equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $331.92.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

V stock traded up $2.72 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $319.97. 5,746,152 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,703,089. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $321.61. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $313.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $288.06. The firm has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96.

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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company 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%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 owns 17,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.