Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Sunbelt Securities Inc.

Sunbelt Securities Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 28,882 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,878 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 0.8% of Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,941,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 211.9% during the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Up 1.3 %

Visa stock opened at $312.38 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $296.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $279.98. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $317.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $581.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.10, a PEG ratio of 2.07 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) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Macquarie increased their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.41.

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.