Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,871 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 89 shares during the quarter. Elmwood Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC raised 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 worth $111,331,000 after acquiring an additional 20,023 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC raised its position in shares of Visa by 5,034.0% in the 3rd quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,499,000 after acquiring an additional 55,273 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America boosted their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Macquarie boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped 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, TD Cowen upped their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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 one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of V opened at $306.59 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $321.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $571.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.51, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $312.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $287.32.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.