Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 11,226 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,354,624 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 11,226 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 0.6% of Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.07% of Visa worth $352,684,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Brio Consultants LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 39.1% in the 4th quarter. Brio Consultants LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $405,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares during the last quarter. Dohj LLC increased its stake in Visa by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. Dohj LLC now owns 11,765 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,063,000 after buying an additional 1,436 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 66.8% in the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 5,075 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,321,000 after buying an additional 2,032 shares during the period. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. increased its position in Visa by 66.2% during the 4th quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 236 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the period. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in Visa by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 2,448 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $637,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $302.58.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,874 shares of company stock valued at $5,506,827 over the last 90 days. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V traded down $0.64 on Friday, hitting $274.52. The company had a trading volume of 6,840,615 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,528,673. The company has a market capitalization of $504.16 billion, a PE ratio of 30.67, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $279.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $264.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.45. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.14 and a 12-month high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

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.