Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Patten & Patten Inc. TN

Patten & Patten Inc. TN cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 107,627 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 943 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 2.2% of Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s holdings in Visa were worth $34,015,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on V. StockNews.com cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $331.72 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $337.96 and its 200 day moving average is $310.90. The firm has a market cap of $616.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.44, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.