Westpac Banking Corp Cuts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Westpac Banking Corp lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 43,997 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,890 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 0.9% of Westpac Banking Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $13,905,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after buying an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $616,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $346.49 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $345.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $316.58. The firm has a market cap of $643.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 134,585 shares of company stock valued at $45,821,697. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price objective (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

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.