PFW Advisors LLC Reduces Stake in Visa Inc. $V

PFW Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,533 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 205 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 0.9% of PFW Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding. PFW Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,030,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 38,416.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth $3,518,533,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $673,689,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Visa by 17.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,847,953,000 after buying an additional 1,651,954 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Up 1.6%

NYSE V opened at $345.62 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $633.45 billion, a PE ratio of 33.75, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.92. The business’s 50-day moving average is $346.16 and its 200 day moving average is $346.63. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $268.23 and a 1 year high of $375.51.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.05%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.96.

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.