Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) General Counsel Sells $874,480.00 in Stock

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Visa Trading Up 1.2 %

Visa stock opened at $349.27 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $351.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $319.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $294.37. The company has a market capitalization of $650.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 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, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on V. Macquarie upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup upped their price target on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $616,000. Finally, Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,847,000 after acquiring an additional 4,198 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.