WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc. Trims Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 39,179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 575 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 4.5% of WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $12,382,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $616,000. FORA Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 5,034.0% during the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,499,000 after acquiring an additional 55,273 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:V opened at $319.97 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $596.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $321.61. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $313.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $288.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on V. 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 note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays upped their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Macquarie raised their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, 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 value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.