World Equity Group Inc. Buys 4,533 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

World Equity Group Inc. lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 110.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,638 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,533 shares during the quarter. World Equity Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,730,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE V opened at $352.00 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $357.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $330.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $303.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $653.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.48, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Macquarie raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna raised their target price on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

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.