Blueprint Investment Partners LLC Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Blueprint Investment Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 89.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,762 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,610 shares during the quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,085,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth 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 period. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on V shares. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group increased their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective 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. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 0.9 %

Visa stock opened at $336.51 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $340.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $313.06. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The stock has a market cap of $625.15 billion, a PE ratio of 33.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 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.