Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc Has $1.19 Million Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,765 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.0% of Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,190,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,847,000 after buying an additional 4,198 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC increased its stake in Visa by 5.2% during 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $323.76 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $603.12 billion, a PE ratio of 33.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $324.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $313.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $289.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, 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. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. 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. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

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.