Ramirez Asset Management Inc. Has $3.18 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ramirez Asset Management Inc. cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 9,085 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 170 shares during the quarter. Ramirez Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,184,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,729,901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Visa by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Visa by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings 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. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on V. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Citigroup began coverage on Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $375.52.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,108 shares of company stock valued at $36,771,200 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $355.46 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $356.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $345.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $655.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $254.51 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.72%.

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.