Financial Counselors Inc. Sells 2,769 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Financial Counselors Inc. cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 233,172 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,769 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 1.1% of Financial Counselors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $73,692,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morey & Quinn Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $492,000. Ipsen Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $651,000. Summitry LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Summitry LLC now owns 319,613 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $101,011,000 after purchasing an additional 5,232 shares during the period. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $320,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its position in Visa by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 1,172,293 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $370,491,000 after buying an additional 27,975 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays boosted their target price 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. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $344.95 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $341.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $314.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $640.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.77, a P/E/G 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 (EPS) 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was 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 approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. Company 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.