Eagle Ridge Investment Management Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Eagle Ridge Investment Management decreased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 75,104 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,377 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 1.9% of Eagle Ridge Investment Management’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. Eagle Ridge Investment Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $19,553,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Naviter Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 21.1% during the fourth quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 9,435 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,456,000 after acquiring an additional 1,647 shares during the period. McAdam LLC boosted its position in Visa by 63.9% during the fourth quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 3,870 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,008,000 after purchasing an additional 1,509 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. boosted its position in Visa by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 36,626 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $9,536,000 after purchasing an additional 3,850 shares in the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 5,629 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,466,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Chip Partners LLC boosted its position in Visa by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 88,114 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $22,940,000 after purchasing an additional 2,084 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group raised their target price on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $302.58.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V traded down $2.37 on Monday, hitting $272.15. 1,734,103 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,899,841. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $279.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $264.73. The firm has a market cap of $499.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.14 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,874 shares of company stock worth $5,506,827 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa 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.