Romano Brothers AND Company Cuts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Romano Brothers AND Company lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,501 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 99 shares during the quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,953,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Visa by 3.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,435,339,000 after acquiring an additional 2,572,159 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Visa by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,621,287,000 after acquiring an additional 5,864,340 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after acquiring an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 116,608.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after acquiring an additional 24,483,134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,927,122,000 after acquiring an additional 763,505 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $271.28 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $280.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $262.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $498.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.14 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.18 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.94%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on V. TD Cowen began coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target for the company. Wedbush lifted their target price on Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $296.87.

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.