Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Peregrine Capital Management LLC

Peregrine Capital Management LLC cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 189,956 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 35,554 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.8% of Peregrine Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Peregrine Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $60,034,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $350.45 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $651.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $328.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $301.39. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $357.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.