Anchor Capital Advisors LLC Trims Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Anchor Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 42,273 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 10,048 shares during the period. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $13,360,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after buying an additional 123,927 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,168,096,000 after buying an additional 670,590 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction 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 approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $363.33 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $674.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $364.00. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $333.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $305.66.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target 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 price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.