Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Harvey Investment Co. LLC

Harvey Investment Co. LLC decreased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,319 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 50 shares during the period. Harvey Investment Co. LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,475,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $348.26 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $321.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $295.90. The stock has a market cap of $647.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on V shares. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America raised 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, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.