ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 3,005 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 187,599 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 3,005 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 2.7% of ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $65,746,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after buying an additional 1,689,926 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after buying an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,356,614,000 after buying an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,785,707 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on V. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price target for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Five 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, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $372.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V traded down $2.21 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $354.43. 6,964,583 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,837,239. The company has a market cap of $653.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm's fifty day moving average is $356.43 and its 200 day moving average is $342.00.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. Visa's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.51 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.72%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This represents a 30.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 101,108 shares of company stock valued at $36,771,200. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.