Guardian Investment Management Sells 2,350 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Guardian Investment Management lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,363 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,350 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 4.8% of Guardian Investment Management’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Guardian Investment Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,822,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in Visa by 3.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,435,339,000 after purchasing an additional 2,572,159 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,621,287,000 after acquiring an additional 5,864,340 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after acquiring an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 116,608.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,090,978,000 after acquiring an additional 24,483,134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,927,122,000 after acquiring an additional 763,505 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $298.43.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 18,965 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,352. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE:V opened at $269.71 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $495.33 billion, a PE ratio of 31.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $279.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $262.89. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.14 and a 12-month high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. Visa’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.18 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.94%.

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.