Operose Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Operose Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,210 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 37 shares during the period. Operose Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $775,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter valued at $27,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter valued at $54,000. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter valued at $56,000. Finally, Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC increased its position in Visa by 28.5% during the first quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 167 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,772,810. This represents a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 75,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,643,224. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $336.86 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $352.79 and a 200 day moving average of $347.26. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $258.74 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $617.39 billion, a PE ratio of 32.90, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on V. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $415.00 price target (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Mizuho raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.84.

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.