Wedmont Private Capital Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 9.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,354 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 2,137 shares during the quarter. Wedmont Private Capital's holdings in Visa were worth $7,494,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Inspire Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $218,000. Lyell Wealth Management LP increased its stake in shares of Visa by 5.0% in the second quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP now owns 45,882 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $12,043,000 after buying an additional 2,204 shares during the period. Diversify Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,560,000. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management boosted its position in Visa by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 20,459 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,370,000 after buying an additional 646 shares during the period. Finally, Pinion Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,674 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,489,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:V traded down $1.12 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $306.59. 9,568,338 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,080,117. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $312.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $287.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $571.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.51, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa's quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa's dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America increased their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup increased their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $330.85.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Company 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.