Visa Inc. $V Stock Position Cut by Hennessy Advisors Inc.

Hennessy Advisors Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,300 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,527,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Visa by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,654,189,000 after buying an additional 726,299 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 955,392 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.5% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,442,157,000 after buying an additional 434,217 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake 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 valued at $3,847,953,000 after buying an additional 1,651,954 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $349.21 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $343.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.89. The company has a market cap of $640.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.90. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $273.24 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.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $10.17 billion for 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%.Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.42 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Macquarie raised their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $389.00.

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.