Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc.

Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,090 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,433 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 1.4% of Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,821,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at $268,640,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at $227,342,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $348.27 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $357.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $647.01 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $329.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $302.66.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Macquarie lifted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

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.