Ameriflex Group Inc. Buys 2,008 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Ameriflex Group Inc. increased its holdings in Visa Inc. by 479.2% during the first quarter, now owning 2,427 shares valued at $851,000.
• Several analysts have raised their price targets for Visa, with Morgan Stanley increasing its target to $402 and Mizuho upgrading Visa from "neutral" to "outperform" with a new target of $425.
• Visa recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59, with an annualized yield of 0.7%, payable on September 2nd to shareholders of record on August 12th.

Ameriflex Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 479.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,427 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 2,008 shares during the quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $851,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of V. FWL Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,005,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Semus Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,209,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC boosted its position in Visa by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 4,003 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,265,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Kennebec Savings Bank raised its position in Visa by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank now owns 3,372 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 68,507 shares of company stock valued at $25,213,475 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.1%

V traded up $0.28 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $350.35. 4,035,793 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,490,003. The stock has a market cap of $642.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $268.23 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $348.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $347.36.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The company had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.42 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Macquarie increased their price target on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $383.17.

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.