Banco Santander S.A. Sells 5,210 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Banco Santander S.A. lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 205,150 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 5,210 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 0.8% of Banco Santander S.A.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Visa were worth $64,836,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on V. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. 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. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $345.79 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $642.41 billion, a PE ratio of 34.86, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50-day moving average is $336.18 and its 200-day moving average is $308.35. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week 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.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507. 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.