Virtu Financial LLC Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Virtu Financial LLC lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 53.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 20,757 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 24,227 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,560,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC boosted its position in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th 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 during the period. King Wealth Management Group lifted its position in shares of Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.9 %

V stock opened at $336.51 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $625.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $340.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $312.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on V. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays lifted their price target 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. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company 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.