Verity & Verity LLC Sells 60 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Verity & Verity LLC lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,544 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 60 shares during the quarter. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $668,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new stake in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,212,000. Absolute Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $404,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the first quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Arjuna Capital lifted its stake in Visa by 0.8% in the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $277.62 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $271.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.07. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $227.78 and a 52-week high of $293.07. The company has a market cap of $507.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. 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 (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The company 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on V. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Compass Point began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target for the company. Six equities research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $310.93.

Visa Company Profile

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.