Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Bill Few Associates Inc.

Bill Few Associates Inc. lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,807 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 119 shares during the period. Bill Few Associates Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its position in Visa by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,847,000 after acquiring an additional 4,198 shares in the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $330.20 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $615.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $314.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $290.42. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $331.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa 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 transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on V shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $334.58.

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.