Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. Has $5.77 Million Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 18,271 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 113 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 1.8% of Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,774,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after buying an additional 9,736,958 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4,412.3% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after acquiring an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of V stock opened at $319.97 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $313.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $288.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $596.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. This is a positive change 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 currently 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on V shares. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Macquarie increased their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Visa Company 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.