Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Position Cut by Sterling Investment Management LLC

Sterling Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,210 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 128 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 2.8% of Sterling Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Sterling Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,543,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. MBB Public Markets I LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 2,662.4% in the 2nd quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 112,514 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,532,000 after acquiring an additional 108,441 shares in the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. boosted its holdings in Visa by 28.3% in the second quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 590,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $154,887,000 after purchasing an additional 130,254 shares during the period. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC increased its stake in Visa by 2.3% during the second quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC now owns 2,244 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $589,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Marshfield Associates raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.3% during the second quarter. Marshfield Associates now owns 925,954 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $243,035,000 after purchasing an additional 2,825 shares during the period. Finally, Makena Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Makena Capital Management LLC now owns 61,525 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,148,000 after buying an additional 1,020 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $330.20 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $314.54 and a 200-day moving average of $289.98. The firm has a market cap of $615.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $331.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on V. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America raised their price target on Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. BMO Capital Markets increased 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. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $368.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $334.58.

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.