Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Wright Investors Service Inc.

Wright Investors Service Inc. decreased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,441 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,230 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 2.0% of Wright Investors Service Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,144,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Unionview LLC grew its position in Visa by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co increased its position in Visa by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Menard Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of V opened at $306.59 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $321.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $312.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $287.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $571.14 billion, a PE ratio of 31.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on V. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Macquarie boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $330.85.

Visa Company 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.