Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 258,574 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,474,710 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 258,574 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.9% of Principal Financial Group Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.29% of Visa worth $1,730,228,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $31,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on V shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $383.00 price target (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price 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, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $355.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of V traded down $1.47 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $349.02. The stock had a trading volume of 3,789,798 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,653,773. The company has a market cap of $648.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $357.15. 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 50-day moving average of $328.47 and a 200 day moving average of $301.39.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

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.