Watchman Group Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Watchman Group Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,435 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 266 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.4% of Watchman Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Watchman Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,510,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC grew its stake in Visa by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $724,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. now owns 7,283 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,302,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $342.62 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $343.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $315.27. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (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 anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company 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 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company 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.