Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Position Lessened by Scharf Investments LLC

Scharf Investments LLC lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 509,623 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 35,019 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 4.8% of Scharf Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Scharf Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $161,061,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 123,927 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 6.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 670,590 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Bank of America upped their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.27.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $342.05 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $637.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $317.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $293.12. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $351.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

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 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.