Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 4,418 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 254,527 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 4,418 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $90,370,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its position in shares of Visa by 14.5% during the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $159,523,000 after acquiring an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 7.5% in the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter valued at $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc raised its position in Visa by 43.8% in the 2nd quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,212,000 after buying an additional 13,912 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $329.89 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market cap of $604.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $342.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $348.64. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $299.00 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Citigroup raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $400.00.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 23,897 shares of company stock valued at $8,164,561 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company 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.