Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Bought by Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC

Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 58.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,794 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,235 shares during the quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,779,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $454,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors lifted its position in shares of Visa by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 964 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $305,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Unionview LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $368,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. Finally, Presilium Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $475,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:V opened at $351.26 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $321.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $296.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $652.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $351.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’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 value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on V. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group increased their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.