Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Sells 4,486 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors cut its Visa stake by 11% in the fourth quarter, selling 4,486 shares and leaving it with 36,475 shares valued at about $12.8 million.
• Visa insiders have been selling shares, including CEO Ryan McInerney, who sold 31,455 shares in a Rule 10b5-1 transaction; insiders sold 42,744 shares worth roughly $14.4 million over the last quarter.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish on Visa, with a consensus Buy rating and average price target of $386.70, while the company also beat quarterly earnings expectations and authorized a $20 billion share buyback.

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 11.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 36,475 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 4,486 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 0.7% of Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $12,792,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of V. Clayton Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Visa by 446.2% in the fourth quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 71 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Visa by 200.0% in the third quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its position in Visa by 102.7% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Cresta Advisors Ltd. bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,284.36. The trade was a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total value of $201,253.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,679 shares in the company, valued at $829,471.98. This trade represents a 19.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 42,744 shares of company stock worth $14,356,010 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $403.00 price target (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Visa from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Daiwa Securities Group upgraded Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $370.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. UBS Group raised their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $371.00 price objective on Visa and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $386.70.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $327.17 on Wednesday. The business's 50-day moving average is $313.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $325.17. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $586.87 billion, a PE ratio of 28.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.78.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The company had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 12th. Visa's payout ratio is 23.34%.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world's largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa's network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa's product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.

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