Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires 366,012 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,290,780 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 366,012 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 0.9% of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.23% of Visa worth $1,356,058,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Montis Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $374,000. Mechanics Bank Trust Department boosted its holdings in Visa by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 32,846 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $9,031,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Visa by 15.3% in the 3rd quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 151,319 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $41,605,000 after acquiring an additional 20,109 shares during the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel increased its stake in Visa by 7.4% in the third quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 103,481 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,452,000 after purchasing an additional 7,106 shares during the period. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the third quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 20,496 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,635,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $348.26 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $351.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $647.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $321.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $295.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on V shares. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

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.