Voya Financial Advisors Inc. Cuts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Voya Financial Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,261 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 435 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 0.4% of Voya Financial Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Voya Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,866,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Visa by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Visa by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after buying an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,171,271,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on V. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $358.17.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $335.88 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $338.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $321.93. The company has a market capitalization of $623.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Visa Company 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.