Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,011 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 197 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,584,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group raised its stake in Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after acquiring an additional 6,172 shares during the period. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were 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 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $342.62 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $343.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $315.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on V. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

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.