DAVENPORT & Co LLC Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

DAVENPORT & Co LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 491,952 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,634 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 0.9% of DAVENPORT & Co LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. DAVENPORT & Co LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $155,409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 8,227 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,600,000 after buying an additional 282 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Visa by 35.8% in the fourth quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 168,420 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $53,227,000 after acquiring an additional 44,438 shares during the last quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. boosted its stake in Visa by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. now owns 11,059 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,579,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Costello Asset Management INC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 31.6% during the fourth quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 11,129 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,517,000 after purchasing an additional 2,674 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abundance Wealth Counselors increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Abundance Wealth Counselors now owns 8,478 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,679,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup raised their price target on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $345.92 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $317.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $293.27. The company has a market capitalization of $644.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.87, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $351.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.