WestEnd Advisors LLC Sells 106 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

WestEnd Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,283 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 106 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $405,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 81,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $25,682,000 after buying an additional 8,692 shares during the last quarter. Hobart Private Capital LLC lifted its position in Visa by 46.0% in the 4th quarter. Hobart Private Capital LLC now owns 1,126 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $356,000 after acquiring an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. now owns 5,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,582,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 74,047 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,402,000 after purchasing an additional 1,598 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hendershot Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Hendershot Investments Inc. now owns 67,035 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,186,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

V opened at $351.26 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $321.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $296.19. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $351.90. The stock has a market cap of $652.56 billion, a PE ratio of 35.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.