abrdn plc Sells 133,991 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

abrdn plc lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,426,549 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 133,991 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 0.8% of abrdn plc’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. abrdn plc’s holdings in Visa were worth $450,205,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. Mizuho boosted their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. 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. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’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 transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,983 shares of company stock worth $7,213,146 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $347.28 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $646.94 billion, a PE ratio of 35.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day moving average of $319.76 and a 200-day moving average of $294.76. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $351.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released 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 research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.