Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Holdings Lowered by Sawyer & Company Inc

Sawyer & Company Inc decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,930 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,171 shares during the period. Visa comprises 2.4% of Sawyer & Company Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Sawyer & Company Inc’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,709,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 116,608.6% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after acquiring an additional 24,483,134 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,067,232,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,621,287,000 after acquiring an additional 5,864,340 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 126,912,205 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $30,139,110,000 after acquiring an additional 3,070,682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,435,339,000 after acquiring an additional 2,572,159 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Monness Crespi & Hardt began coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Mizuho lifted their target price on Visa from $243.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on Visa in a report on Tuesday, December 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $295.29.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 47,311 shares of company stock worth $12,832,129 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

V stock traded up $0.05 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $281.26. 8,748,794 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,655,137. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $278.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $258.03. The stock has a market cap of $516.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.37, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.14 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.18 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.94%.

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.