Renaissance Technologies LLC Cuts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Renaissance Technologies LLC cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 88.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,017 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 15,452 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $645,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 426,549 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $134,884,000 after purchasing an additional 20,389 shares during the last quarter. Shelton Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Shelton Capital Management now owns 33,708 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $10,653,000 after buying an additional 562 shares during the last quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors LLC now owns 10,436 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,298,000 after buying an additional 291 shares in the last quarter. Canopy Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 65.8% in the 4th quarter. Canopy Partners LLC now owns 9,229 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,917,000 after buying an additional 3,663 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Krane Funds Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $272,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 154,400 shares of company stock valued at $52,711,258. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Up 1.5 %

Visa stock opened at $347.66 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $645.87 billion, a PE ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $337.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $324.57. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The firm's revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.51 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on V. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI started coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $362.38.

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.

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