Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Sells 3,071 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 41.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,379 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,071 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,382,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% during 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 buying an additional 3,926,049 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Visa by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of V opened at $345.30 on Thursday. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $337.84 and a 200 day moving average of $323.67. The company has a market cap of $641.49 billion, a PE ratio of 34.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.51 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on V. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $362.38.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. 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.