Claro Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Claro Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.9% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,880 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 240 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,641,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Westend Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Macquarie increased their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $303.56.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $263.17. The stock had a trading volume of 7,954,876 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,818,625. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $227.68 and a 1-year high of $290.96. The firm has a market cap of $481.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.36, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business’s fifty day moving average is $273.88 and its 200-day moving average is $273.58.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

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.