Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. Lowers Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,915 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 199 shares during the period. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $605,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp increased its position in Visa by 4.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Visa by 1.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after acquiring an additional 123,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Visa by 6.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,168,096,000 after acquiring an additional 670,590 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s 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. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $345.92 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $644.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.87, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $317.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $293.27. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $351.25. 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 (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on V. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Visa 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.