Bell Asset Management Ltd Sells 4,611 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bell Asset Management Ltd cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 11.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 36,163 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 4,611 shares during the period. Visa comprises 2.1% of Bell Asset Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. Bell Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Visa were worth $11,429,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position in Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at $69,000. Zacks Investment Management boosted its holdings in Visa by 1.4% in the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 50,992 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,020,000 after purchasing an additional 707 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tenere Capital LLC grew its position in Visa by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Tenere Capital LLC now owns 71,303 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $19,605,000 after purchasing an additional 3,688 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 in the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $313.46 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $582.34 billion, a PE ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $345.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $317.27.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Barclays boosted their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa 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.