Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Reduced by Cottage Street Advisors LLC

Cottage Street Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,697 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 505 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 3.1% of Cottage Street Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Cottage Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after buying an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,778,000. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $133,000. Finally, Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 4,539 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $344.95 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $640.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50 day moving average of $341.94 and a 200 day moving average of $314.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on V. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Profile

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.