Ramirez Asset Management Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Ramirez Asset Management Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Ramirez Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,155,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,452,949,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Visa by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,654,189,000 after purchasing an additional 726,299 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after purchasing an additional 955,392 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Visa by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,442,157,000 after purchasing an additional 434,217 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Visa by 17.7% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,847,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $410.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $415.00 target price (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $389.00.

Insider Transactions at Visa

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

Visa Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of V opened at $343.05 on Tuesday. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $277.99 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $343.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $346.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $628.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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%.

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.