Mason & Associates Inc Grows Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Mason & Associates Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,895 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Mason & Associates Inc’s holdings in Visa were worth $599,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Unionview LLC increased its stake in Visa by 1.5% in the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $368,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in Visa by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Presilium Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $475,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC grew its position in Visa by 1.1% during the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $900,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, St. Louis Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:V opened at $317.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $312.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $287.85. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $321.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $590.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.59, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

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.