GQG Partners LLC Sells 774,052 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

GQG Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,487,285 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 774,052 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 2.1% of GQG Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest position. GQG Partners LLC owned approximately 0.24% of Visa worth $1,418,162,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake 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 worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 7.7% during the third 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. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,868,646,000 after buying an additional 718,558 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on V. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $343.96 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $341.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $313.75. The firm has a market cap of $639.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.67, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.