Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Has $1.25 Million Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,800 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 173 shares during the quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,250,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,710,188 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after buying an additional 2,257,605 shares during the period. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $358,349,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Visa by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,929,979 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $903,955,000 after purchasing an additional 999,167 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,983,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $916,174,000 after acquiring an additional 871,439 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V traded up $4.18 on Monday, hitting $272.67. 3,957,573 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,881,426. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.14 and a 1-year high of $290.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $278.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $265.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $498.70 billion, a PE ratio of 30.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Macquarie lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction 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 approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 11,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,278,698. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.