Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC Sells 400 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,741 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,182,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $31,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 101.4% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on V. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $332.81.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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 insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $323.55 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $313.86 and a 200-day moving average of $289.47. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $325.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $602.73 billion, a PE ratio of 33.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.