M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. Takes Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. purchased a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $452,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $323.76 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $324.58. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $313.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $289.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $603.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.27, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective 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, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.