Granite Investment Partners LLC Has $31.13 Million Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Granite Investment Partners LLC reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 98,501 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,145 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 1.3% of Granite Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Granite Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $31,130,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on V. StockNews.com lowered Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 7th. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 2.8 %

V opened at $333.69 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $619.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $342.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $318.76.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

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.