Hartford Funds Management Co LLC Grows Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,325 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 171 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 0.1% of Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,367,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $343.81 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $335.63 and its 200 day moving average is $307.80. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $638.72 billion, a PE ratio of 34.66, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

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.