TCW Group Inc. Sells 33,040 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

TCW Group Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 727,313 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 33,040 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 1.9% of TCW Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $229,860,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC grew its holdings 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 worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings 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 worth $24,475,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America raised their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $349.46 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $329.81 and a 200-day moving average of $303.29. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $649.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.23, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. Company 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.