Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Diversify Advisory Services LLC

Diversify Advisory Services LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 11.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,420 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 3,405 shares during the period. Diversify Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $7,822,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted 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 worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 2.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,833,981,000 after purchasing an additional 345,829 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Visa by 2.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $332.81.

Visa Stock Down 0.2 %

V traded down $0.81 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $322.82. 2,401,058 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,484,071. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $325.74. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $313.86 and a 200 day moving average of $289.47. The firm has a market cap of $601.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.