PGGM Investments Sells 92,037 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

PGGM Investments trimmed its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 56.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 71,103 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 92,037 shares during the quarter. PGGM Investments’ holdings in Visa were worth $22,471,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of V opened at $333.01 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The business has a 50-day moving average of $337.35 and a 200 day moving average of $310.05. The firm has a market cap of $618.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. 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 (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on V shares. StockNews.com downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

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.