Welch & Forbes LLC Sells 4,295 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Welch & Forbes LLC cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 757,672 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 4,295 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 3.0% of Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $197,260,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of V. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $274,000. Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 54.4% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 56,775 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $14,781,000 after purchasing an additional 20,008 shares in the last quarter. Lincoln National Corp grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 49,151 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,797,000 after buying an additional 697 shares during the period. Fielder Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $839,000. Finally, Machina Capital S.A.S. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $493,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on V shares. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $303.00.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded up $4.18 during trading on Monday, hitting $272.67. 3,931,997 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,881,426. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.14 and a 1-year high of $290.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $498.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $277.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $266.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,724 shares of company stock worth $3,278,698 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa 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.