Avantra Family Wealth Inc. Buys Shares of 4,751 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Avantra Family Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,751 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,502,000. Visa accounts for about 1.4% of Avantra Family Wealth Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, 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 sold a total of 21,983 shares of company stock worth $7,213,146 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $345.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $643.27 billion, a PE ratio of 34.81, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $318.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $293.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

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.