Altfest L J & Co. Inc. Sells 302 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Altfest L J & Co. Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,525 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 302 shares during the period. Altfest L J & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,699,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. GoalVest Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 1,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 3,143 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $818,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 18.4% during the 2nd quarter. HWG Holdings LP now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Powers Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Powers Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,101 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marco Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 1,141 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $262,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,311 shares of company stock valued at $12,832,129 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:V traded down $2.15 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $278.45. 2,054,187 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,592,870. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.14 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The firm has a market cap of $511.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $278.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $258.27.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The company had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.18 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.9 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $243.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.82.

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.