Hilton Capital Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Hilton Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 97.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 875 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 34,090 shares during the quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Unionview LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the third quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its stake in Visa by 0.3% during the third quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 15.9% during the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. BNP Paribas raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Susquehanna increased their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $307.39 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $560.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.59, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $250.03 and a 52 week high of $312.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $288.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $276.84.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.