Sowa Financial Group Inc. Sells 749 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sowa Financial Group Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,719 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 749 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 2.9% of Sowa Financial Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Sowa Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,652,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in Visa by 4,412.3% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,119,725,000 after acquiring an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $323.55 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $313.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $289.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $602.73 billion, a PE ratio of 33.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $325.74.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $332.81.

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.