Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is Howland Capital Management LLC’s 7th Largest Position

Howland Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 183,249 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,299 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 2.5% of Howland Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Howland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $57,914,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC lifted 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 acquiring an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’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 sale, the insider now 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $351.26 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $351.90. The company has a market cap of $652.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a fifty day moving average of $321.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $296.19.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

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 issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.