Amica Retiree Medical Trust Trims Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Amica Retiree Medical Trust reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,530 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 479 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 1.7% of Amica Retiree Medical Trust’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. Amica Retiree Medical Trust’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,748,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $1,778,000. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $133,000. Finally, Cadence Bank raised its position in Visa by 2.4% during the third quarter. Cadence Bank now owns 18,026 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,956,000 after acquiring an additional 425 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $344.05 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $639.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $342.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $314.42.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

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.