Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,683,340 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 42,400 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 1.1% of Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C.’s holdings in Visa were worth $589,943,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Promethium Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 6.0% during the first quarter. Promethium Advisors LLC now owns 2,606 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $913,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. lifted its holdings in Visa by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. now owns 4,156 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,457,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec boosted its stake in Visa by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 585,651 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $205,265,000 after purchasing an additional 5,587 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 246,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $86,214,000 after purchasing an additional 15,312 shares during the period. Finally, First Manhattan CO. LLC. grew its holdings in Visa by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. now owns 1,299,273 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $455,343,000 after buying an additional 45,615 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $415.00 target price (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.84.

Visa Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of V stock opened at $351.92 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $348.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $347.35. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $268.23 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market cap of $645.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.05%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 68,507 shares of company stock worth $25,213,475. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by 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.