Ames National Corp Invests $632,000 in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ames National Corp bought a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,999 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $632,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $306,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Visa by 19.8% in the 4th quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $57,727,000 after acquiring an additional 30,185 shares during the period. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its position in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Finally, King Wealth Management Group boosted its stake in Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $362.38.

Visa Trading Down 0.3%

Visa stock opened at $366.96 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $369.15. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $677.10 billion, a PE ratio of 36.99, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $340.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $330.68.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,121,041.50. The trade was a 17.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.

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