Studio Investment Management LLC Reduces Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Studio Investment Management LLC reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,819 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 44 shares during the period. Studio Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $646,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Visa by 0.8% during the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,209,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,185,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC increased its position in Visa by 2.9% during the second quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $360,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC increased its position in Visa by 11.1% during the first quarter. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC now owns 301 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $105,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was 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 approximately $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $392.75.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $345.82 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $280.78 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $344.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $347.33. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $633.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was 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%.

Visa Company 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.