Invesco Ltd. Sells 107,755 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Invesco Ltd. trimmed its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,191,218 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 107,755 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 0.6% of Invesco Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Invesco Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,220,833,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, 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 sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Trading Down 7.6 %

Visa stock opened at $313.46 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $582.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $345.02 and a 200-day moving average of $317.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio 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.