Bessemer Group Inc. Has $1.19 Billion Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bessemer Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,762,253 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 42,613 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.9% of Bessemer Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Bessemer Group Inc. owned approximately 0.20% of Visa worth $1,189,021,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in V. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Six equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Down 1.4 %

NYSE V opened at $307.92 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $572.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.04, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $343.47 and a 200-day moving average of $317.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.