Sigma Planning Corp Sells 25,580 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sigma Planning Corp lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 60.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 16,925 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 25,580 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,406,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after buying an additional 2,257,605 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,927,122,000 after buying an additional 763,505 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,229,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,272,846,000 after buying an additional 374,489 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 7,542,434 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,734,835,000 after buying an additional 108,280 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,277,500 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,224,327,000 after buying an additional 19,323 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $298.43.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $272.31 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $279.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $263.62. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.14 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The stock has a market cap of $500.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.18 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

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.