Brown Advisory Inc. Has $2.32 Billion Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Brown Advisory Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,347,416 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 511,352 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 2.9% of Brown Advisory Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Brown Advisory Inc. owned approximately 0.40% of Visa worth $2,322,078,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after acquiring an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,079,682 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,292,321,000 after purchasing an additional 14,778 shares during the last quarter. Pensionfund Sabic raised its stake in shares of Visa by 43.1% during the 4th quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 16,600 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,246,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 64,287 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $20,317,000 after buying an additional 1,965 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 154,400 shares of company stock valued at $52,711,258 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie cut their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $362.38.

Visa Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $347.66 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $337.61 and its 200 day moving average is $324.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $645.87 billion, a PE ratio of 35.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.51 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.72%.

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.