Ellevest Inc. Trims Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ellevest Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,508 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,047 shares during the period. Ellevest Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,057,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Visa by 17,018.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Visa by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,771,116,000 after buying an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $351.91 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $336.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $326.25. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week 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 has a market cap of $653.77 billion, a PE ratio of 35.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 107,135 shares of company stock worth $36,289,074 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $362.38.

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.