Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Salem Investment Counselors Inc.

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 78,463 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,832 shares during the period. Visa comprises 0.8% of Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest position. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $24,797,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Unionview LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 1.5% in the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $900,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. St. Louis Trust Co grew its holdings in Visa by 0.9% in the third quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Menard Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the third quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Macquarie lifted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.85.

Visa Stock Down 0.6 %

NYSE V traded down $1.73 during trading on Monday, reaching $305.98. 2,558,434 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,061,347. The stock has a market cap of $570.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $312.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $287.04. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $321.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

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