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

Biondo Investment Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,378 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 75 shares during the quarter. Biondo Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $752,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Down 2.1 %

V stock opened at $342.62 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $343.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $315.06. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.