Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Birch Capital Management LLC

Birch Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,566 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 143 shares during the quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,443,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at $616,000. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after buying an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 5,034.0% during the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,499,000 after buying an additional 55,273 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of Visa stock traded down $0.12 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $312.92. 2,566,632 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,647,458. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $310.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $286.01. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $321.61. The stock has a market cap of $582.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.16, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on V shares. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $329.70.

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.