Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC Has $832,000 Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,194 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 198 shares during the quarter. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $832,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in V. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV lifted its stake in Visa by 2.0% in the third quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,930 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $904,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Towerpoint Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $216,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 10.1% during the third quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC now owns 1,757 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $406,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Richelieu Gestion SA bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Finally, Cooper Financial Group increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 7,926 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,064,000 after acquiring an additional 476 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $275.96 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $506.80 billion, a PE ratio of 31.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $280.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $261.47. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.14 and a 12-month high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.18 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.94%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Citigroup upped their price target on Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 26th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $296.87.

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.