Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Reduced by Sandy Spring Bank

Sandy Spring Bank cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,486 shares during the quarter. Sandy Spring Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $12,014,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Counselors Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 230,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $59,957,000 after purchasing an additional 3,395 shares in the last quarter. Hendley & Co. Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Hendley & Co. Inc. now owns 67,779 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $17,646,000 after purchasing an additional 5,098 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Visa by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 39,474 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,277,000 after purchasing an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 31,607 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,229,000 after purchasing an additional 749 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $475,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $296.87.

Visa Stock Up 0.1 %

V opened at $275.96 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $280.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $261.69. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.14 and a twelve month high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. The firm has a market cap of $506.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.18 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.94%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,511 shares of company stock worth $15,131,081 over the last three months. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Company 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.