Legal & General Group Plc Trims Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 18.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,383,269 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 2,523,088 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.0% of Legal & General Group Plc's investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.61% of Visa worth $3,597,568,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on V shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Down 2.5 %

V stock traded down $8.20 during trading on Thursday, hitting $324.23. 4,619,196 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,263,304. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $602.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.47, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $343.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $317.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Visa's payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Company 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.