Watchman Group Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Watchman Group Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,435 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 266 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.4% of Watchman Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Watchman Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,510,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of V. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,576,366,000 after acquiring an additional 411,210 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its holdings in Visa by 110.5% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 27,957 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,687,000 after acquiring an additional 14,675 shares in the last quarter. White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Visa by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,278 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,726,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares during the period. Finally, Circle Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Circle Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,910 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,625,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on V. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $342.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $343.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $315.27. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.