HCR Wealth Advisors Grows Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

HCR Wealth Advisors raised its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,435 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.3% of HCR Wealth Advisors’ holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. HCR Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Visa were worth $10,251,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Sawyer & Company Inc lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Sawyer & Company Inc now owns 22,001 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,953,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 98.6% during the 4th quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 2,342 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $740,000 after acquiring an additional 1,163 shares in the last quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in Visa by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 45,490 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $14,377,000 after purchasing an additional 941 shares during the last quarter. Rockingstone Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 18.7% in the fourth quarter. Rockingstone Advisors LLC now owns 5,583 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,764,000 after purchasing an additional 881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 2,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $711,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $317.10 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $321.61. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $312.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $287.85. The stock has a market cap of $590.71 billion, a PE ratio of 32.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost 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 currently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on V. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.