Howard Financial Services LTD. Has $648,000 Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Howard Financial Services LTD. reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,848 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 123 shares during the quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Visa were worth $648,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 377.3% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.13.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $362.55 on Friday. 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 $369.15. The company has a market cap of $668.96 billion, a PE ratio of 36.55, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50-day moving average is $342.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $333.16.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.51 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 14,813 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $355.04, for a total transaction of $5,259,207.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,377,671.52. This represents a 35.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282. Company 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.