Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Polen Capital Management LLC

Polen Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,578,733 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 679,008 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 5.6% of Polen Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Polen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,079,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of V. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 10.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $566,153,000 after buying an additional 199,440 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at $228,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at $660,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group upped their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $331.72 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $337.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $311.19. The stock has a market cap of $616.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.