Clarus Group Inc. Reduces Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Clarus Group Inc. reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 12.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,353 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 498 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 0.4% of Clarus Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Clarus Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,060,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of V. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after buying an additional 9,736,958 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Visa by 4.5% in the third 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 6.1% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $268,640,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on V. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Four equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $351.43 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $322.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $297.52. The company has a market capitalization of $652.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.43, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $352.12.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.