Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust

Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 825 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 39 shares during the quarter. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust’s holdings in Visa were worth $261,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,729,901,000 after buying an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after buying an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after buying an additional 241,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,771,116,000 after buying an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on V shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $358.17.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $341.46 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $634.36 billion, a PE ratio of 34.42, a P/E/G 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. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $337.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $323.52.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 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.