Copeland Capital Management LLC Sells 11,440 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Copeland Capital Management LLC reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 71,285 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 11,440 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $22,529,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at about $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at about $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,847,000 after buying an additional 4,198 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at about $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after buying an additional 20,023 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,983 shares of company stock worth $7,213,146. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $345.31 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $643.27 billion, a PE ratio of 34.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day moving average of $318.40 and a 200 day moving average of $293.81. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Barclays upped their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

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.