Columbia Asset Management Lowers Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Columbia Asset Management lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,586 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 3.3% of Columbia Asset Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Columbia Asset Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $17,790,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position 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. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. now owns 4,101 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,128,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 19,615 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,393,000 after acquiring an additional 567 shares during the period. Finally, Harber Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $12,114,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $346.80 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $344.68 and its 200 day moving average is $316.37. The company has a market cap of $644.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.96, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. 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.