Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Verdence Capital Advisors LLC

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 44,261 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 148 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.1% of Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $13,988,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $268,640,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of V opened at $352.18 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $335.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $307.55. 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 company has a market capitalization of $654.27 billion, a PE ratio of 35.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Six 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

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.