Davis R M Inc. Raises Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Davis R M Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 285,779 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,749 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.8% of Davis R M Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Davis R M Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $90,317,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the fourth 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 during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the fourth 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 during the period. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. now owns 7,283 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Crescent Grove Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the fourth 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were 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 $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. 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 assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $341.07 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $336.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $309.43. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $633.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.38, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. 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) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.