Argent Advisors Inc. Buys 65 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Argent Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,289 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the quarter. Argent Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,988,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. raised its holdings in Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. now owns 7,283 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Crescent Grove Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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. Insiders sold a total of 103,855 shares of company stock worth $35,165,827 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $334.35 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $338.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $311.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, 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 $366.54. The firm has a market cap of $621.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.70, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Visa 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.