Boston Partners Cuts Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Boston Partners cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 520,123 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,660 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners’ holdings in Visa were worth $164,411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $45,708,000. Evoke Wealth LLC grew its stake in Visa by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 14,101 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,457,000 after buying an additional 820 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Investments LLC grew its stake in Visa by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 22,979 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,262,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Carlson Capital Management grew its stake in Visa by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Carlson Capital Management now owns 941 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Visa by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,114,008 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $351,852,000 after buying an additional 95,685 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays boosted their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock 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 previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of V opened at $334.30 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $621.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.70, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $338.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $312.02.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is 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.