U S Wealth Group LLC. Acquires New Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

U S Wealth Group LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 7,580 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $2,396,000. Visa makes up 1.8% of U S Wealth Group LLC.'s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest holding.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after buying an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $69,000. Zacks Investment Management raised its position in shares of Visa by 1.4% during the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 50,992 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $14,020,000 after acquiring an additional 707 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tenere Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.5% in the third quarter. Tenere Capital LLC now owns 71,303 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $19,605,000 after acquiring an additional 3,688 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Down 2.1 %

V stock traded down $6.93 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $325.51. 4,841,717 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,264,257. The stock has a market cap of $604.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $343.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $317.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.73%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Visa 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.