Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. trimmed its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 543,386 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 43,619 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $141,471,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 116,608.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 24,483,134 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,067,232,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,621,287,000 after purchasing an additional 5,864,340 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,233,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,710,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 3.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,435,339,000 after purchasing an additional 2,572,159 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Trading Down 1.7 %

Visa stock opened at $271.28 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $280.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $262.19. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $498.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.18 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS 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 paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on V shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, December 20th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $296.87.

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.