Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Position Lowered by Verity & Verity LLC

Verity & Verity LLC lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 23.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,897 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 886 shares during the quarter. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $688,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Financial Freedom LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Kalos Management Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $40,000. NewSquare Capital LLC increased its stake in Visa by 121.9% in the 1st quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 213 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC increased its stake in Visa by 666.7% in the 1st quarter. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC now owns 230 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.35% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $241.07 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $241.67 and a 200-day moving average of $232.27. The company has a market capitalization of $448.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.59, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $174.60 and a 52 week high of $250.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 1.49.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, August 29th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $284.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $275.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $272.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 24th. One equities research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $273.77.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 2,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total transaction of $552,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,706,880. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 425 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total value of $102,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 2,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total transaction of $552,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,706,880. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 81,550 shares of company stock worth $19,795,806 in the last quarter. 0.22% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.