Vista Capital Partners Inc. Takes $314,000 Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Vista Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 994 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $314,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth about $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE V traded down $2.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $348.27. The stock had a trading volume of 6,910,504 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,472,298. The company has a market capitalization of $647.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $329.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $302.03. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $357.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on V. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Raymond James restated an "outperform" rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $353.96.

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.