Balboa Wealth Partners Sells 376 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Balboa Wealth Partners lessened its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,243 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 376 shares during the period. Balboa Wealth Partners’ holdings in Visa were worth $1,973,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’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 this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $333.01 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $337.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $310.05. The company has a market cap of $618.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on V. StockNews.com cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays raised their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

About Visa

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.