Value Partners Investments Inc. Sells 2,610 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Value Partners Investments Inc. trimmed its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 14.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,916 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 2,610 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 0.5% of Value Partners Investments Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Value Partners Investments Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $5,231,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. NewSquare Capital LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $47,000. Finally, Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $2,978,899.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $185,576.46. 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 through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, June 13th. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $372.80.

Visa Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of V traded up $3.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $349.13. 6,588,465 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,921,649. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company has a market cap of $644.20 billion, a PE ratio of 35.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $352.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $339.57.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is 23.72%.

Visa Company 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.