Petredis Investment Advisors LLC Sells 235 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Petredis Investment Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,984 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 235 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 0.7% of Petredis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,948,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $330.20 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $331.09. The stock has a market cap of $615.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.94, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $314.95 and a 200-day moving average of $290.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $335.52.

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.