Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD trimmed its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 42,952,820 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 979,507 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.6% of Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned approximately 2.31% of Visa worth $13,574,810,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Bank of America increased their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $331.74 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $339.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $321.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $616.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.44, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54.

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, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.