Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Accredited Investors Inc.

Accredited Investors Inc. lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 6,017 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 380 shares during the quarter. Accredited Investors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,902,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 7.8 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $332.36 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $343.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $317.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. 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 (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays raised their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.