Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 1,489 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Kentucky Retirement Systems decreased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 118,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,489 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 0.9% of Kentucky Retirement Systems’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Visa were worth $31,135,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $1,212,000. Absolute Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the first quarter worth approximately $404,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 40.4% during the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 25,137 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,967,000 after buying an additional 7,236 shares during the period. Davidson Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,761,000 after acquiring an additional 1,914 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Down 1.1 %

Visa stock opened at $288.46 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $269.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $273.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $525.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $227.78 and a 52 week high of $293.07.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $310.22.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.