Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Manning & Napier Advisors LLC

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 716,963 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 48,975 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 2.6% of Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $226,589,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter worth $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $342.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $637.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.15, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $351.25. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $317.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $292.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday. Barclays increased their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.27.

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.