Wellington Shields & Co. LLC Sells 798 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wellington Shields & Co. LLC reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,961 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 798 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 1.2% of Wellington Shields & Co. LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,780,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 103,855 shares of company stock worth $35,165,827 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised 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. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of V opened at $331.72 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $337.96 and its 200 day moving average is $310.62. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $616.26 billion, a PE ratio of 33.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.