Blue Trust Inc. Trims Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Blue Trust Inc. lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 50.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,995 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 11,069 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $3,475,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. boosted its stake in Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. now owns 4,785 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,601,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,407,551 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $444,842,000 after acquiring an additional 245,121 shares during the last quarter. Kanawha Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Kanawha Capital Management LLC now owns 3,517 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,111,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. Campbell Wealth Management bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $272,000. Finally, Asset Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $272,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.5 %

NYSE:V traded down $1.78 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $354.95. 4,151,579 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,719,613. The business has a 50-day moving average of $327.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $301.05. 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 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $659.42 billion, a PE ratio of 35.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating 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, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on V shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $354.73.

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.