Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Lessened by Weitz Investment Management Inc.

Key Points

• Weitz Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 6.5%, selling 22,500 shares and retaining 324,200 shares in its portfolio.
• Several institutional investors have increased their positions in Visa, with Brighton Jones LLC raising its stake by 50.1% and Revolve Wealth Partners LLC by 68.9% during the fourth quarter.
• Visa reported $2.98 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of $2.85, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 expected to be paid on September 2nd.

Weitz Investment Management Inc. lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 6.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 324,200 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 22,500 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 6.0% of Weitz Investment Management Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Weitz Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $113,619,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 50.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $6,522,000 after purchasing an additional 6,883 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,733,000 after acquiring an additional 4,817 shares during the last quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 1,697 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $536,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $56,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 17,797 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,624,000 after acquiring an additional 784 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 related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This represents a 30.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 89,913 shares of company stock worth $32,902,432 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI started coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. Macquarie raised their price target on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Five 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $338.81 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $355.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $346.75. The stock has a market cap of $625.16 billion, a PE ratio of 33.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $254.51 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

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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