Merit Financial Group LLC Sells 10,500 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Merit Financial Group LLC decreased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 32.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,180 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 10,500 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,775,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 66.2% during the fourth quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 236 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the period. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 1,019.2% in the 3rd quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,724 shares of company stock worth $3,278,698 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $303.00.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded up $0.88 during trading on Friday, reaching $268.49. The company had a trading volume of 3,810,049 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,903,757. 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 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $278.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $265.22. The stock has a market cap of $493.08 billion, a PE ratio of 30.00, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. Visa’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

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.