KLCM Advisors Inc. Purchases 144 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

KLCM Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. KLCM Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,227,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after buying an additional 123,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Visa by 6.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,168,096,000 after acquiring an additional 670,590 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, 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. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $354.95 on Thursday. 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 has a market capitalization of $659.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.78, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $327.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $301.05.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

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.