Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Rakuten Securities Inc.

Rakuten Securities Inc. cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 63.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 452 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 781 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $143,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Visa by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $566,153,000 after purchasing an additional 199,440 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth about $228,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after acquiring an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $660,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. Bank of America upped their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $333.01 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $618.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $337.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $310.05. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.