Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Buys 2,199 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 31,932 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,199 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $8,912,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 target price for the company. Macquarie raised their target price on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $303.56.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE V traded up $0.93 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $269.92. The stock had a trading volume of 1,544,432 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,778,043. The firm has a market cap of $493.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $227.68 and a twelve month high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $273.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $273.62.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.