Madison Investment Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 376,465 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 376,465 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $118,978,000. Visa makes up about 1.3% of Madison Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Barclays boosted their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $333.01 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market cap of $618.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.57, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $337.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $310.05. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 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 a total of 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.