Harvest Investment Services LLC Takes $360,000 Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Harvest Investment Services LLC bought a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,139 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $360,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $29,242,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,576,366,000 after buying an additional 411,210 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $69,000. Passumpsic Savings Bank lifted its position in shares of Visa by 2.0% in the third quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 9,137 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,512,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC raised its position in Visa by 101.5% during the third quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 44,984 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $12,368,000 after acquiring an additional 22,658 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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. Finally, William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $358.17.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock traded down $0.21 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $335.50. 4,451,694 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,211,210. The firm has a market capitalization of $623.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day moving average of $338.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $322.98. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by 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.