Colonial Trust Advisors Cuts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Colonial Trust Advisors cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 82,606 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,126 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 2.3% of Colonial Trust Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Colonial Trust Advisors’ holdings in Visa were worth $26,107,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Scotia Capital Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 1,531,579 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $484,079,000 after buying an additional 75,355 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC grew its stake in Visa by 142.5% in the 4th quarter. DRW Securities LLC now owns 22,172 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,007,000 after buying an additional 13,029 shares during the last quarter. Azimuth Capital Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 25.3% during the 4th quarter. Azimuth Capital Investment Management LLC now owns 116,611 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $36,854,000 after purchasing an additional 23,575 shares in the last quarter. Faithward Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Faithward Advisors LLC now owns 3,978 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,257,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tandem Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $951,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $332.36 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. 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 company has a market capitalization of $617.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $343.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $317.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.