Payden & Rygel Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Payden & Rygel reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,000 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.5% of Payden & Rygel’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Payden & Rygel’s holdings in Visa were worth $17,287,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares during the period. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on V shares. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five investment 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $188,186.28. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 7.6 %

Shares of V stock opened at $313.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $582.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $345.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $316.89. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54.

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%. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.