Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Reduces Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD decreased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 42,952,820 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 979,507 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 1.6% of Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in Visa were worth $13,574,810,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

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 stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 3.6 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $331.74 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $616.30 billion, a PE ratio of 33.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $339.57 and a 200 day moving average of $321.41.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on V shares. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Bank of America boosted their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

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.