Beech Hill Advisors Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Beech Hill Advisors Inc. lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 18.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,998 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 2,673 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 1.7% of Beech Hill Advisors Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Beech Hill Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $4,205,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 14,813 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.04, for a total transaction of $5,259,207.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,377,671.52. This represents a 35.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 101,098 shares of company stock worth $36,738,526 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.9%

V opened at $349.13 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $353.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $339.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $644.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.09, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.51 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's payout ratio is 23.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, June 13th. Macquarie dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Five equities 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 MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $372.80.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.