Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA Cuts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 572,070 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 4,507 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 1.7% of Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA’s holdings in Visa were worth $191,380,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $350.88 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $352.12. The stock has a market cap of $651.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $321.77 and a 200 day moving average of $296.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.