Benjamin Edwards Inc. Buys 3,771 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 76,661 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,771 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $24,236,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. BIP Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 22.6% in the 4th quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 3,198 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,011,000 after acquiring an additional 590 shares in the last quarter. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $127,352,000. BNP Paribas lifted its stake in Visa by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas now owns 171,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $54,420,000 after buying an additional 17,130 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 27.0% during the 4th quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 8,210 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,595,000 after buying an additional 1,744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,796,415 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,045,149,000 after buying an additional 164,008 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America raised their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $362.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at 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 transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was 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 154,400 shares of company stock worth $52,711,258 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE V opened at $347.66 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $337.61 and its 200-day moving average is $324.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $645.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.51 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Visa Company Profile

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.