Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Wulff Hansen & CO.

Wulff Hansen & CO. lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 26.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,055 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,785 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 1.5% of Wulff Hansen & CO.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Wulff Hansen & CO.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,726,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. BTC Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 18.9% in the third quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,625 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,238,000 after acquiring an additional 575 shares in the last quarter. Tiff Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $3,421,000. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 9,459 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,229,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Leisure Capital Management increased its holdings in Visa by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Leisure Capital Management now owns 5,814 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,985,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. Finally, WJ Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $247,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total transaction of $3,661,152.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,282,641.18. This represents a 52.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, December 11th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $160.00 price target on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $392.21.

Visa Trading Down 3.1%

NYSE V opened at $314.13 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $337.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $339.89. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $299.00 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The company has a market capitalization of $570.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.79.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.69 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.23% and a return on equity of 61.74%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.75 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect 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, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Visa’s payout ratio is 25.14%.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.