Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC Purchases 164 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,238 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the period. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $708,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT increased its stake in Visa by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 61,609 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $19,471,000 after acquiring an additional 938 shares during the last quarter. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC now owns 2,040 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $645,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. O Neil Global Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $792,000. Finally, Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI grew its stake in shares of Visa by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 57,200 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $18,077,000 after buying an additional 1,972 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Bank of America raised their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $348.27 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $329.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $302.66. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $357.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $647.01 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.