Primecap Management Co. CA Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Primecap Management Co. CA reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,964,780 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 52,290 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,253,029,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying 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 currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $334.35 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $621.15 billion, a PE ratio of 33.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $338.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $311.61. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on V. Susquehanna upped their target price on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

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.