Snowden Capital Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Snowden Capital Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 72,656 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,094 shares during the period. Visa makes up 0.7% of Snowden Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $22,962,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,557,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders boosted its stake in Visa by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 15,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,020,000 after buying an additional 677 shares in the last quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. grew its position in Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 124,910 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $39,477,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,138 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $9,209,000 after acquiring an additional 1,565 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rockland Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 135,938 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $42,962,000 after acquiring an additional 1,381 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on V shares. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.38.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $361.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $672.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.48, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $337.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $328.77. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,121,041.50. The trade was a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.