New World Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

New World Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,965 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 42 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 0.2% of New World Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. New World Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $937,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in Visa by 10.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $566,153,000 after buying an additional 199,440 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $228,000. Alpha Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $267,000. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 8.1% during the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 25,833 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,103,000 after purchasing an additional 1,945 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $352.00 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $653.93 billion, a PE ratio of 35.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $330.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $303.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results 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%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

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.