Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Cuts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

by · The Markets Daily

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V – Free Report) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 989,265 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 129,940 shares during the quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.05% of Visa worth $312,647,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,868,646,000 after purchasing an additional 718,558 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after purchasing an additional 123,927 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $327.98 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $337.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $310.18. The firm has a market cap of $609.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.06, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. 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 (NYSE:V – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group increased their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Seven 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Get Our Latest Analysis on V

About Visa

(Free Report)

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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