Birch Capital Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Birch Capital Management LLC lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,566 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 143 shares during the quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,443,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded down $0.12 on Tuesday, hitting $312.92. The stock had a trading volume of 2,566,632 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,647,458. The stock has a market cap of $582.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $310.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $286.01.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. 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 note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $329.70.

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.