Payden & Rygel Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Payden & Rygel lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 54,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,000 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 1.5% of Payden & Rygel’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Payden & Rygel’s holdings in Visa were worth $17,287,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $313.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The stock has a market cap of $582.34 billion, a PE ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $345.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $316.89.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

About Visa

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.