Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Acquired by Howard Financial Services LTD.

Howard Financial Services LTD. lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 114.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,971 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 1,050 shares during the quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD.'s holdings in Visa were worth $623,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Unionview LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $475,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $900,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, St. Louis Trust Co increased its holdings in Visa by 0.9% in the third quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,068,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup upped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:V traded up $2.72 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $319.97. 5,746,152 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,703,089. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $313.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $288.73. 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 twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $321.61. The company has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a PE 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. 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%. This is a positive change from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, 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 transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate 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.