Groupama Asset Managment Sells 12,928 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Groupama Asset Managment reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 18.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 57,335 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 12,928 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment’s holdings in Visa were worth $18,080,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $350.68 on Tuesday. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $344.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $315.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $651.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.35, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.