Defined Financial Planning LLC Decreases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Defined Financial Planning LLC trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 32.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 994 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 486 shares during the quarter. Defined Financial Planning LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $344,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,729,901,000 after buying an additional 1,689,926 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,526,660,000 after buying an additional 866,596 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Visa by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,356,614,000 after acquiring an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Visa by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,771,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $372.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $2,978,899.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 168,162 shares of company stock valued at $58,645,479 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.7%

NYSE:V opened at $373.19 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $347.68 and a 200-day moving average of $336.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $688.59 billion, a PE ratio of 37.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.72%.

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.