Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC Decreases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 12.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 19,313 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,765 shares during the period. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,104,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Visa by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,475,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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. Insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Macquarie increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $355.52 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $323.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $297.90. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $356.08. The company has a market capitalization of $660.47 billion, a PE ratio of 35.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

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.