Portland Global Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 680 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Portland Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 680 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 2.1 %

NYSE V opened at $342.62 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $343.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $315.27. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

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.