HT Partners LLC Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

HT Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 17.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,491 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 310 shares during the period. HT Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $388,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 116,608.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after buying an additional 24,483,134 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $3,067,232,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,621,287,000 after purchasing an additional 5,864,340 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 126,912,205 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $30,139,110,000 after purchasing an additional 3,070,682 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 3.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,435,339,000 after purchasing an additional 2,572,159 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 47,311 shares of company stock worth $12,832,129. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of V stock traded down $3.32 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $277.28. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,314,241 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,596,197. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $278.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $258.27. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.14 and a 12-month high of $290.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $509.23 billion, a PE ratio of 31.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.18 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Redburn Atlantic reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.82.

About Visa

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.