Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Sells 1,659 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 57,887 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,659 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Visa were worth $18,295,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value 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 $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE V opened at $348.26 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $351.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market cap of $648.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $320.41 and its 200-day moving average is $295.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. UBS Group raised their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

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.