LA Financiere DE L Echiquier Sells 5,765 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

LA Financiere DE L Echiquier cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 456,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 5,765 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 5.5% of LA Financiere DE L Echiquier’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. LA Financiere DE L Echiquier’s holdings in Visa were worth $118,925,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. GoalVest Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 1,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,668 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $433,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 3,143 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $818,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.4% during the second quarter. HWG Holdings LP now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parker Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Parker Financial LLC now owns 925 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $241,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081 over the last three months. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $295.82.

Visa Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $274.40 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $280.18 and its 200-day moving average is $261.07. The stock has a market cap of $503.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.14 and a twelve month high of $290.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.18 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.94%.

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.