Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Bard Financial Services Inc.

Bard Financial Services Inc. cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 75 shares during the period. Bard Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,440,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at about $39,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $329.70.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:V traded down $1.47 on Monday, reaching $313.44. 3,208,795 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,219,246. The business’s 50-day moving average is $309.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $285.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $321.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $583.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.21, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

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.