Legal & General Group Plc Decreases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 18.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,383,269 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,523,088 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.0% of Legal & General Group Plc’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.61% of Visa worth $3,597,568,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $313.46 on Monday. 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. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $345.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $317.27. The stock has a market cap of $582.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid 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 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $188,186.28. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.