Meridian Wealth Partners LLC Decreases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Meridian Wealth Partners LLC lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 38 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $336.51 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The company has a market cap of $625.15 billion, a PE ratio of 33.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $340.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $313.06.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

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.