Sapient Capital LLC Sells 392 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sapient Capital LLC reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 115,189 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 392 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 0.7% of Sapient Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $36,404,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $351.43 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $322.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $297.52. The stock has a market cap of $652.88 billion, a PE ratio of 35.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $352.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 three months, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.