Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,227 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $580,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Visa by 26.6% during the fourth quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 54,236 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $14,120,000 after buying an additional 11,396 shares in the last quarter. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $23,427,000. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $1,752,000. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,797 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,509,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Barn Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. Blue Barn Wealth LLC now owns 2,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $591,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Macquarie lifted their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.00.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of V traded up $0.73 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $277.19. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,996,277 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,922,313. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.14 and a 12-month high of $290.96. The stock has a market cap of $506.96 billion, a PE ratio of 30.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day moving average is $277.81 and its 200 day moving average is $266.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

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.