Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Wright Investors Service Inc.

Wright Investors Service Inc. lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 19,441 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,230 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 2.0% of Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,144,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Inspire Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the second quarter valued at approximately $218,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 21,482 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,638,000 after acquiring an additional 2,128 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 81,315 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,343,000 after acquiring an additional 3,595 shares in the last quarter. Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth $4,041,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 8.4% in the 2nd quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $221,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four 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 a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $330.85.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $306.59 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market cap of $571.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $312.44 and its 200-day moving average is $287.32. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $321.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Visa

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.