Blume Capital Management Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Blume Capital Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,998 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,041,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after purchasing an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,927,122,000 after buying an additional 763,505 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,229,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,272,846,000 after acquiring an additional 374,489 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,078,408,000 after acquiring an additional 85,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,524,329 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,725,079,000 after purchasing an additional 141,566 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded up $1.31 during trading on Thursday, hitting $278.50. 1,062,512 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,866,943. The stock has a market cap of $509.36 billion, a PE ratio of 31.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $277.81 and its 200 day moving average is $266.37. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.14 and a 12 month high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.09 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Barclays upped their target price on Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.00.

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.