Herbst Group LLC Has $3.29 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Herbst Group LLC grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,404 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,299 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 2.0% of Herbst Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest position. Herbst Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,288,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $319.97 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $313.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $288.59. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $321.61. The company has a market capitalization of $596.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction 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. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Macquarie increased their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

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.