Agur Provident & Training Funds Management Ltd. Trims Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Agur Provident & Training Funds Management Ltd. lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 29.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 16,644 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,790 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 2.0% of Agur Provident & Training Funds Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Agur Provident & Training Funds Management Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,260,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 826,929 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $261,343,000 after buying an additional 75,255 shares in the last quarter. Broadway Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $419,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa by 44,126.7% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 33,170 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,483,000 after acquiring an additional 33,095 shares in the last quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Visa by 34.1% during the fourth quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $5,171,271,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Up 1.6 %

Visa stock opened at $349.82 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $343.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $314.66. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $649.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.26, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on V. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’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 owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

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.