Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 387,017 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 545 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 1.2% of Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $122,313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew 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 worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on V. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE V opened at $345.79 on Monday. 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 $336.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $308.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $642.41 billion, a PE ratio of 34.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.