Townsend & Associates Inc Has $228,000 Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Townsend & Associates Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 40.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 840 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 562 shares during the period. Townsend & Associates Inc’s holdings in Visa were worth $228,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its position in Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after acquiring an additional 2,257,605 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,927,122,000 after acquiring an additional 763,505 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,229,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,272,846,000 after purchasing an additional 374,489 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,078,408,000 after acquiring an additional 85,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,524,329 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,725,079,000 after buying an additional 141,566 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $303.00.

Visa Stock Performance

V traded up $0.01 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $277.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,094,325 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,878,660. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.14 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $506.98 billion, a PE ratio of 31.13, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $277.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $266.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.