Beech Hill Advisors Inc. Sells 291 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Beech Hill Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 14,671 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 291 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 1.7% of Beech Hill Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Beech Hill Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,636,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 79.0% in the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $319.97 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $321.61. The company has a market capitalization of $596.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $313.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $288.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.