Richardson Financial Services Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Richardson Financial Services Inc. lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 11.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,440 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 580 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 0.8% of Richardson Financial Services Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Richardson Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,165,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at $1,212,000. Absolute Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $404,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 40.4% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 25,137 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,967,000 after purchasing an additional 7,236 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.5% in the first quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 4.4% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,761,000 after buying an additional 1,914 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Cowen cut their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Compass Point assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.22.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $288.46 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $227.78 and a 1 year high of $293.07. The company has a fifty day moving average of $269.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $273.38. The company has a market capitalization of $525.66 billion, a PE ratio of 32.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.16 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.