Merit Financial Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 32.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 52,121 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 12,636 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $16,472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $319.97 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $321.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $596.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $313.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $288.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

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.