Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA Reduces Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA trimmed its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 40,562 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,408 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 1.7% of Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA’s holdings in Visa were worth $12,819,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,983 shares of company stock worth $7,213,146. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $347.28 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $319.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $294.76. The firm has a market cap of $646.94 billion, a PE ratio of 35.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be 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 is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

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.