West Branch Capital LLC Buys 830 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

West Branch Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 20,295 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 830 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 2.0% of West Branch Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,414,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE V opened at $330.20 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $331.09. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $314.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.98. The company has a market cap of $615.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on V shares. TD Cowen upped their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 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 given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $334.58.

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.