Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Sells 129,940 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 11.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 989,265 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 129,940 shares during the quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $312,647,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Riverstone Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $10,163,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $24,475,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $327.98 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market cap of $609.32 billion, a PE ratio of 33.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $337.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $310.18.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share 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 forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Insider Activity

In other 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa 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.