Private Asset Management Inc. Reduces Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Private Asset Management Inc. trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 85,320 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 21,226 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 3.9% of Private Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Private Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $20,262,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BCK Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at $2,717,000. Markel Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.3% during the first quarter. Markel Corp now owns 961,105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $213,144,000 after purchasing an additional 3,065 shares in the last quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at $2,323,000. Ergoteles LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at $538,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at $1,496,000. 81.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $241.50 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $241.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $231.98. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $174.60 and a 12-month high of $250.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $449.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.05. Visa had a return on equity of 49.42% and a net margin of 51.94%. The company had revenue of $8.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 8.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 11th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 10th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 22.84%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 24,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total transaction of $5,766,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 24,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total value of $5,766,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 22,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.21, for a total value of $5,452,767.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,755,623.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 65,750 shares of company stock valued at $15,845,648. Insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Raymond James upped their price target on Visa from $282.00 to $284.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Visa from $266.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Visa from $270.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Barclays upped their price objective on Visa from $272.00 to $287.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Visa from $265.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $273.77.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payments technology company worldwide. 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, click to pay; Visa Direct, a real-time payments network; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral B2B cross-border payments network; Visa Treasury as a Service, a cross-border consumer payments business; 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.