Blair William & Co. IL Reduces Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Blair William & Co. IL lessened its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,089,726 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 62,093 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.9% of Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Visa were worth $660,437,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group raised its position in Visa by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,663,000 after buying an additional 6,172 shares during the period. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of V stock opened at $344.05 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $639.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $342.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $314.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. UBS Group upped their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.