Venturi Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 65,666 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 624 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.2% of Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $23,315,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth about $206,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Visa in the second quarter worth about $969,000. BankPlus Trust Department lifted its holdings in Visa by 9.0% in the second quarter. BankPlus Trust Department now owns 5,864 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,082,000 after buying an additional 484 shares during the period. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 32.4% in the second quarter. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,050 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $372,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the period. Finally, Shell Asset Management Co. lifted its holdings in Visa by 19.7% in the second quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 112,470 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $39,932,000 after buying an additional 18,489 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $343.63 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $275.37 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $343.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $346.97. The company has a market capitalization of $629.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.42 earnings per share. 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 was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.05%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Macquarie raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $389.00.

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.