Fortis Group Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Fortis Group Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 31.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,829 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,201 shares during the period. Fortis Group Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,802,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $39,685,966,000 after purchasing an additional 788,908 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Visa by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,578,025,000 after purchasing an additional 626,618 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Visa by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,264,508,000 after acquiring an additional 968,008 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after acquiring an additional 345,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Visa by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,783,857,000 after acquiring an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $284.88 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $228.03 and a twelve month high of $293.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $521.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $277.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $273.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.16 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Oppenheimer began coverage on Visa in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $318.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $314.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.