WestEnd Advisors LLC Has $405,000 Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

WestEnd Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,283 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 106 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $405,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 81,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $25,682,000 after purchasing an additional 8,692 shares during the period. Hobart Private Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 46.0% in the fourth quarter. Hobart Private Capital LLC now owns 1,126 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $356,000 after buying an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. now owns 5,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,582,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. grew its position in Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 74,047 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,402,000 after buying an additional 1,598 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hendershot Investments Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Hendershot Investments Inc. now owns 67,035 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,186,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE V opened at $351.26 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $652.56 billion, a PE ratio of 35.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $321.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $296.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $351.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Macquarie upped their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.