Lafayette Investments Inc. Sells 146 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Lafayette Investments Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,661 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 146 shares during the quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,421,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $5,171,271,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,868,646,000 after purchasing an additional 718,558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,758,703 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,084,141,000 after buying an additional 173,990 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $335.27 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 current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market cap of $622.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.80, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $342.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $319.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value 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 represents a 17.74 % 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 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.