Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by IMS Capital Management

IMS Capital Management lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 10,912 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 1.6% of IMS Capital Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. IMS Capital Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,449,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 566,729 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $155,822,000 after acquiring an additional 13,318 shares during the period. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Visa by 10.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $566,153,000 after acquiring an additional 199,440 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the period. Kozak & Associates Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. now owns 3,713 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Finally, BCS Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Visa by 42.0% during the third quarter. BCS Wealth Management now owns 2,264 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $623,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.5 %

Visa stock opened at $353.73 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $657.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $325.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $298.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 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 $356.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on V shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Macquarie raised their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

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.