B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 17.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 43,808 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 9,367 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $13,845,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th 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. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Visa by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Raymond James reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI began coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $366.13.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 14,813 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.04, for a total value of $5,259,207.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,377,671.52. This trade represents a 35.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded up $0.63 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $359.93. 3,293,103 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,011,967. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $342.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $332.61. The company has a market capitalization of $664.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $369.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.72%.

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.