Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas Lowers Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas decreased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 164,979 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 959 shares during the period. Visa comprises 3.0% of Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas' portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas' holdings in Visa were worth $52,140,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,683,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 4,412.3% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,119,725,000 after purchasing an additional 4,166,905 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $335.52.

Visa Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE V traded up $1.40 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $335.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,955,789 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,532,722. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $337.83. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $315.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $291.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $625.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.53, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.