Occidental Asset Management LLC Has $5.25 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Occidental Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,604 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 902 shares during the period. Occidental Asset Management LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $5,248,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,833,981,000 after purchasing an additional 345,829 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on V shares. Macquarie upped their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V traded up $2.72 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $319.97. The company had a trading volume of 5,746,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,703,089. The business has a fifty day moving average of $313.41 and a 200-day moving average of $288.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a PEG 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 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. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The business's revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.