Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc.

Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,915 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 199 shares during the quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $605,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of Visa by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 340,238 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $93,548,000 after buying an additional 40,268 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 17.1% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 33,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $9,148,000 after buying an additional 4,848 shares in the last quarter. Herbst Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 75.8% during the 3rd quarter. Herbst Group LLC now owns 9,105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,503,000 after buying an additional 3,925 shares in the last quarter. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 16.8% in the 3rd quarter. WealthBridge Capital Management LLC now owns 4,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,220,000 after purchasing an additional 638 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smith Anglin Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Smith Anglin Financial LLC now owns 5,912 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,625,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $345.92 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $644.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $317.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $293.27. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Macquarie raised their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.