Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Cut by LM Advisors LLC

LM Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 20.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,399 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,862 shares during the period. LM Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,339,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $344.05 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $639.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.68, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $342.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $314.42.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend 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.