Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Empower Advisory Group LLC

Empower Advisory Group LLC reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 7.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,911 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,426 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $5,345,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 1.1% during the third 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 worth $3,188,862,000 after purchasing an additional 123,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 6.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,168,096,000 after purchasing an additional 670,590 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Citigroup raised their price target on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho upped their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $355.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

V stock traded down $1.45 during trading on Friday, reaching $349.04. 3,789,798 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,653,773. The firm has a market capitalization of $648.43 billion, a PE ratio of 35.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $357.15. The business's 50 day moving average price is $328.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $301.39.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

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.