Kennedy Investment Group Decreases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Kennedy Investment Group cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,952 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 194 shares during the quarter. Kennedy Investment Group’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,565,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.2% in the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 101,450 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,627,000 after purchasing an additional 1,157 shares during the last quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 72.5% in the 2nd quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 18,396 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,829,000 after buying an additional 7,734 shares during the period. Ashburton Jersey Ltd purchased a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $14,347,000. Mattson Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,300,000. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 79.0% in the 3rd quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.52.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $343.26 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a 50-day moving average of $316.43 and a 200 day moving average of $292.09. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $344.44. The stock has a market cap of $639.46 billion, a PE ratio of 35.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Visa 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.