Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. Sells 200 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,192 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $377,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $724,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,005,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $365.23 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market cap of $673.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $338.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $329.89.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $362.38.

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.