Blossom Wealth Management Trims Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Blossom Wealth Management lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,808 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 101 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 2.0% of Blossom Wealth Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Blossom Wealth Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $984,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sovereign Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $424,000. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 50.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,522,000 after purchasing an additional 6,883 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $202,074,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 68.9% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,733,000 after buying an additional 4,817 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leverage Partners Absolute Return Fund SPC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $204,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $185,576.46. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 101,098 shares of company stock valued at $36,738,526. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 2.3%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $351.65 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $648.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.34, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day moving average of $352.27 and a 200 day moving average of $339.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 52.86% and a return on equity of 56.28%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $372.80.

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.