Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Decreases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 52.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 90,171 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 98,285 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $28,498,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,163,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,475,000 after buying an additional 435 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $333.01 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $618.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.57, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $337.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $310.05.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on V. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.