Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,496 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 605 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,105,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target 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. Macquarie increased their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $334.58.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

V stock opened at $330.20 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $615.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.94, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $331.09. The company’s 50 day moving average is $314.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.42.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change 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 yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.