Sigma Planning Corp Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Sigma Planning Corp trimmed its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 35,722 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,347 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $12,195,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Bare Financial Services Inc raised its stake in shares of Visa by 287.0% during the second quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 89 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Winnow Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 202.7% during the second quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 114 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on V shares. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Bank of America raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Freedom Capital raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. Evercore set a $380.00 target price on Visa in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, HSBC raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $391.43.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total transaction of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,282,641.18. The trade was a 52.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $320.90 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $336.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $338.96. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $299.00 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market cap of $582.49 billion, a PE ratio of 30.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.79.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.03. Visa had a return on equity of 61.74% and a net margin of 50.23%.The business had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.75 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.14%.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.