Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Reduced by Everstar Asset Management LLC

Everstar Asset Management LLC lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 826 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 73 shares during the quarter. Everstar Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $261,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal 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 on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 2.3 %

Visa stock opened at $350.68 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $651.48 billion, a PE ratio of 35.35, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $344.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $315.95.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s 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.