Colonial Trust Advisors Lowers Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Colonial Trust Advisors decreased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 82,606 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,126 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 2.3% of Colonial Trust Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Colonial Trust Advisors’ holdings in Visa were worth $26,107,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $724,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. now owns 7,283 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $2,930,800.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $332.36 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $617.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $343.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $317.96. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

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.