Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI Cuts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 427,383 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 20,403 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 1.1% of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI’s holdings in Visa were worth $135,070,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 1,689,926 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after buying an additional 866,596 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,356,614,000 after buying an additional 241,057 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after buying an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $367.76 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $678.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.07, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $339.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $330.43. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $369.15.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.51 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Macquarie lowered their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $362.38.

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.