Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC Cuts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 52.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 276,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 301,082 shares during the period. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $87,285,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of V. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 worth $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 59.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $185,576.46. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $362.38.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $367.76 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $369.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $678.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.07, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $339.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $330.43.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, 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 will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

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.