Montag A & Associates Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Montag A & Associates Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 75,262 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 832 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 1.1% of Montag A & Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $23,786,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC boosted its position in Visa by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,475,000 after buying an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Down 0.5 %

V stock opened at $353.73 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $356.08. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $325.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $299.42. The firm has a market cap of $657.15 billion, a PE ratio of 35.66, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on V shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

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.