Saratoga Research & Investment Management Sells 48,370 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Saratoga Research & Investment Management cut its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 20.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 194,052 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 48,370 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 2.3% of Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $50,933,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of V. Brio Consultants LLC grew its position in Visa by 39.1% in the fourth quarter. Brio Consultants LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $405,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares during the period. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 5,629 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,466,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $730,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,043 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,387 shares in the last quarter. Finally, J. W. Coons Advisors LLC raised its position in Visa by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC now owns 9,446 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on V. Citigroup cut their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $322.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday. Finally, William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.22.

Visa Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $275.17 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $503.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.75, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $271.31 and its 200 day moving average is $273.19. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $227.78 and a 52 week high of $293.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The business 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 firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.16 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company 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.