Howe & Rusling Inc. Grows Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Howe & Rusling Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 8.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,278 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 2,411 shares during the period. Howe & Rusling Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $9,885,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of V stock traded down $7.24 on Friday, hitting $342.62. 5,686,669 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,140,541. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $343.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $315.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $355.84.

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.