B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 956,317 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 20,736 shares during the period. Visa makes up 3.1% of B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in Visa were worth $301,991,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $5,171,271,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.2% in 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 buying an additional 718,558 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Five 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $342.62 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average price is $343.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $315.49.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. 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.