Investment Partners LTD. Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Investment Partners LTD. cut its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,143 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 207 shares during the quarter. Investment Partners LTD.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,625,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC grew its stake in Visa by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $616,000. Calamos Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $24,475,000 after buying an additional 435 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,847,000 after purchasing an additional 4,198 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on V. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Down 0.3 %

V stock opened at $361.60 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $333.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $306.64. The firm has a market cap of $671.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.45, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company 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.