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

Edgewood Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,608,097 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 577,237 shares during the period. Visa comprises 6.0% of Edgewood Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. Edgewood Management LLC owned approximately 0.36% of Visa worth $2,088,423,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Gator Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Gator Capital Management LLC now owns 2,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $756,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the period. Alcosta Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Visa by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Alcosta Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,103 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,457,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. raised its stake in Visa by 24.9% in the fourth quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 12,642 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,995,000 after buying an additional 2,524 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 255,386 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $80,713,000 after buying an additional 720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Darden Wealth Group Inc boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Darden Wealth Group Inc now owns 1,441 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $455,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on V. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $2,930,800.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $313.46 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $345.02 and a 200-day moving average of $317.07. The company has a market cap of $582.34 billion, a PE ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.