Lafayette Investments Inc. Sells 146 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Lafayette Investments Inc. lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,661 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 146 shares during the period. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,421,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Visa by 17,018.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $623,022,000. 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 several research reports. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $335.27 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $622.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.80, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $342.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $319.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.