EP Wealth Advisors LLC Has $72.91 Million Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 6.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 230,691 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 15,526 shares during the quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $72,908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $12,729,901,000 after buying an additional 1,689,926 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after acquiring an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Visa by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $348.28 on Wednesday. The company's 50 day moving average price is $337.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $325.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $647.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,208 shares of company stock worth $48,905,978 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie decreased their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $362.38.

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.

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