FIL Ltd Lowers Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

FIL Ltd cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,730,739 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 234,188 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.8% of FIL Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. FIL Ltd’s holdings in Visa were worth $863,023,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Southeast Asset Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors LLC now owns 10,436 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,298,000 after buying an additional 291 shares in the last quarter. Canopy Partners LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 65.8% during the 4th quarter. Canopy Partners LLC now owns 9,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,917,000 after acquiring an additional 3,663 shares in the last quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $272,000. Elgethun Capital Management increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Elgethun Capital Management now owns 4,095 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,294,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, U S Wealth Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $2,396,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:V opened at $311.93 on Tuesday. 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 quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $344.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $317.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $579.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.44, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group increased their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average 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.