Conning Inc. Has $8.38 Million Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Conning Inc. trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 26,507 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 671 shares during the period. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $8,377,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,475,000 after buying an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target 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 boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:V opened at $348.26 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $321.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $295.90. 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 current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $647.00 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97.

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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.