Apriem Advisors Purchases 736 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Apriem Advisors grew its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 29.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,197 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 736 shares during the period. Apriem Advisors’ holdings in Visa were worth $1,010,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $454,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vicus Capital increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 1,032 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $326,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $363.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $674.99 billion, a PE ratio of 36.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $333.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $305.34. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $364.00.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid 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 0.65%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Six investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.