Saratoga Research & Investment Management Sells 48,370 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Saratoga Research & Investment Management decreased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 20.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 194,052 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 48,370 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 2.3% of Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $50,933,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Core Alternative Capital raised its holdings in Visa by 1.9% in the second quarter. Core Alternative Capital now owns 20,036 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,259,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 3.0% in the second quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,583 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,253,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its holdings in Visa by 310.5% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 468 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. Invst LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 21.2% in the 2nd quarter. Invst LLC now owns 4,534 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,194,000 after acquiring an additional 793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Second Line Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 9.7% in the second quarter. Second Line Capital LLC now owns 9,194 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,413,000 after purchasing an additional 814 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on V shares. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $310.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE:V opened at $275.17 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $503.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $271.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $273.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. 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 results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.16 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

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.