Laidlaw Wealth Management LLC Lowers Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Laidlaw Wealth Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,148 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 317 shares during the period. Laidlaw Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $995,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. State Street Corp increased its holdings 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 valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in 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 in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,188,862,000 after buying an additional 123,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,168,096,000 after buying an additional 670,590 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.31.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $348.27 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $329.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $302.03. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.