Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Smith Moore & CO.

Smith Moore & CO. lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,865 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 179 shares during the period. Smith Moore & CO.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,118,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,729,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $5,171,271,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,868,646,000 after purchasing an additional 718,558 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was 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 trade 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 have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $339.14 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $345.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $316.73. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $630.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.19, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Visa 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.