Baskin Financial Services Inc. Sells 1,227 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Baskin Financial Services Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 177,232 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,227 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 4.5% of Baskin Financial Services Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Baskin Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $56,012,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in V. Czech National Bank boosted its position in shares of Visa by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 340,238 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $93,548,000 after acquiring an additional 40,268 shares in the last quarter. Security National Bank lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Security National Bank now owns 38,642 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,625,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Greenfield Savings Bank lifted its holdings in Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Greenfield Savings Bank now owns 5,255 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,445,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in Visa by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 3,668 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,009,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ignite Planners LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 2,822 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $776,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,983 shares of company stock worth $7,213,146 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $345.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $643.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $318.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $293.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (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%. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.