Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc.

Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,773 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 154 shares during the period. Visa makes up 2.1% of Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,245,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.7% during the first quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $159,523,000 after acquiring an additional 57,800 shares during the period. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after acquiring an additional 3,484 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after acquiring an additional 955,392 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in 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 report on Wednesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Mizuho raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Macquarie increased their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price on the stock. One 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.96.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were 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 directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Down 1.1%

V opened at $335.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $614.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.72, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $270.00 and a one year high of $375.51. The business’s fifty day moving average is $344.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.22.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during 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%.The business’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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