Monte Financial Group LLC Lowers Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Monte Financial Group LLC reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,475 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 92 shares during the period. Monte Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,730,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,847,000 after acquiring an additional 4,198 shares in the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $334.16 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $314.95 and a 200-day moving average of $290.79. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $335.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $622.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.34, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $335.52.

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.