Brookstone Capital Management Sells 447 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Brookstone Capital Management trimmed its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 447 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,662,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nadler Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $495,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Towerpoint Wealth LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $216,000. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $3,427,000. Richelieu Gestion SA bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $307,000. Finally, Cooper Financial Group grew its stake in Visa by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 7,926 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,064,000 after acquiring an additional 476 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on V shares. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.56.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $4,959,322.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 34,402 shares of company stock valued at $9,559,382. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 2.6 %

V stock opened at $266.62 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $274.13 and its 200 day moving average is $273.41. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $226.02 and a one year high of $290.96. The firm has a market cap of $487.63 billion, a PE ratio of 29.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.09 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

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.