Malaga Cove Capital LLC Lowers Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Malaga Cove Capital LLC cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,775 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 88 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 1.5% of Malaga Cove Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Malaga Cove Capital LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,426,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $54,000. Finally, Hurley Capital LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This represents a 30.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 89,913 shares of company stock valued at $32,902,432 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on V. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $415.00 price objective (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.84.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $338.81 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $355.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.34. The company has a market capitalization of $625.16 billion, a PE ratio of 33.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $254.51 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

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.