Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Sells 342 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,632 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 342 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,194,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nadler Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Towerpoint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $216,000. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,427,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC increased its stake in Visa by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC now owns 1,757 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $406,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Richelieu Gestion SA acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $307,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 11,724 shares of company stock worth $3,278,698. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V traded up $4.18 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $272.67. The stock had a trading volume of 3,931,997 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,881,426. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $498.70 billion, a PE ratio of 30.47, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $277.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $266.06.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Citigroup raised their price target on Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target for the company. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $303.00.

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.