Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. Grows Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. increased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,181 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.5% of Benedict Financial Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,514,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BCK Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the first quarter valued at $2,717,000. Markel Corp raised its stake in Visa by 0.3% during the first quarter. Markel Corp now owns 961,105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $213,144,000 after buying an additional 3,065 shares during the last quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the first quarter valued at $2,323,000. Ergoteles LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth $538,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth $1,496,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 55,511 shares of company stock worth $15,131,081. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $275.96 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $280.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $261.69. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.14 and a 52-week high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $506.80 billion, a PE ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. 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 currently 23.94%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Raymond James boosted their price target on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.