MONECO Advisors LLC Reduces Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

MONECO Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,974 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 516 shares during the quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,836,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,218 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,494,000 after acquiring an additional 898 shares during the last quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 36.1% during the 4th quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 577 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Lutz Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $224,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $431,000. Finally, Marshall Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $233,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

V stock opened at $352.00 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $330.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $303.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $357.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $653.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.48, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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 paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s payout ratio is 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.