Bard Financial Services Inc. Sells 965 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bard Financial Services Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 8.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,920 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 965 shares during the period. Bard Financial Services Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $3,477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,171,271,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $1,955,403,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on V. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $372.80.

Visa Stock Down 0.5%

NYSE V traded down $1.80 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $371.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,586,859 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,985,816. The company has a market capitalization of $685.50 billion, a PE ratio of 37.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $347.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $336.77.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.51 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 168,162 shares of company stock worth $58,645,479. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.