Navellier & Associates Inc. Decreases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Navellier & Associates Inc. lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,511 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 37 shares during the quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $794,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on V. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Macquarie raised their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $349.46 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $357.15. The firm has a market cap of $649.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.23, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $329.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $303.29.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 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.