DSM Capital Partners LLC Reduces Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

DSM Capital Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 14.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 530,037 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 90,475 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 2.6% of DSM Capital Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. DSM Capital Partners LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $167,513,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Vicus Capital increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 1,032 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of V stock traded down $2.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $348.27. 6,910,504 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,472,298. The stock has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $329.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $302.03. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $353.96.

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.