Apollon Financial LLC Grows Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Apollon Financial LLC raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,192 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Apollon Financial LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $377,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie lifted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:V opened at $351.26 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $652.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $321.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $296.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $351.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.