Granite Investment Partners LLC Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Granite Investment Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 98,501 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,145 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.3% of Granite Investment Partners LLC's holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Granite Investment Partners LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $31,130,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $383.00 price target (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $355.84.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % 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, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $188,186.28. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock traded up $0.70 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $335.88. The stock had a trading volume of 4,383,107 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,242,081. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $623.98 billion, a PE ratio of 33.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The firm's fifty day moving average is $341.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $319.63.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

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.