Maple Capital Management Inc. Increases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Maple Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 37.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,490 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $471,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on V. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on 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-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $363.33 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $364.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market cap of $674.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $333.03 and a 200-day moving average of $305.66.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. 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 business’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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.