Copeland Capital Management LLC Sells 11,440 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Copeland Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 71,285 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 11,440 shares during the quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $22,529,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $345.31 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $318.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $293.81. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $351.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $643.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.81, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on V. Barclays upped their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,983 shares of company stock valued at $7,213,146 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.