Bernard Wealth Management Corp. Takes $3.16 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bernard Wealth Management Corp. purchased a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 9,983 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $3,155,000. Visa makes up 2.3% of Bernard Wealth Management Corp.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of V. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Visa by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,171,271,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Visa by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,868,646,000 after purchasing an additional 718,558 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,758,703 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,084,141,000 after purchasing an additional 173,990 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on V. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays boosted their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

V opened at $311.93 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. 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 cap of $579.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $344.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $317.46.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.