Weitz Investment Management Inc. Sells 12,500 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Weitz Investment Management Inc. lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 346,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 12,500 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 5.7% of Weitz Investment Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Weitz Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $109,571,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was 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 approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays boosted their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price target (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Trading Down 1.0 %

Visa stock opened at $346.80 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $344.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $316.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $644.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.96, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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