Avity Investment Management Inc. Reduces Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Avity Investment Management Inc. decreased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 164,785 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,103 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 4.1% of Avity Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Avity Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $52,079,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates grew its position in Visa by 79.0% during the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Insider Transactions at Visa

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

Visa Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of V opened at $316.45 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $321.61. The company has a market capitalization of $589.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $312.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $287.65.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

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.