Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Holdings Decreased by Smith Group Asset Management LLC

Smith Group Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 20.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,068 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 527 shares during the period. Smith Group Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $654,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after buying an additional 9,736,958 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4,412.3% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,119,725,000 after buying an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.27.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $342.05 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $317.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $292.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $637.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $351.25.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. 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 presently 24.25%.

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.