Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Holdings Cut by Simmons Bank

Simmons Bank reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,156 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 88 shares during the quarter. Simmons Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,842,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $268,640,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $227,342,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $355.56 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $660.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company’s fifty day moving average is $332.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $304.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $360.31.

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, topping 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 fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.