Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Position Lowered by Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 577 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 2.3% of Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Visa by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Warther Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vicus Capital grew its stake in shares of Visa by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 1,032 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $361.60 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $671.77 billion, a PE ratio of 36.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $333.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $306.64.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on V. Susquehanna raised their target price on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group raised their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

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.