Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Welch & Forbes LLC

Welch & Forbes LLC reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 719,551 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,171 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 2.8% of Welch & Forbes LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $217,477,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of V. Seneca House Advisors grew its stake in Visa by 108.1% in the 1st quarter. Seneca House Advisors now owns 12,717 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,844,000 after acquiring an additional 6,607 shares during the period. Castle Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 11.6% in the 1st quarter. Castle Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,742 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,433,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares in the last quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc. now owns 27,545 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,325,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co boosted its stake in Visa by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 256,177 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $77,427,000 after purchasing an additional 18,554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 125.0% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 937,519 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $283,356,000 after buying an additional 520,786 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $403.00 price objective (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $415.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on Visa in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $420.00 price target for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $397.91.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value of $3,455,653.59. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at $3,206,524.32. The trade was a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.99, for a total value of $3,608,455.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,219,704.26. This trade represents a 40.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 75,581 shares of company stock valued at $25,627,975 over the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE:V traded up $0.85 on Friday, hitting $349.05. The stock had a trading volume of 4,701,656 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,985,494. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market cap of $626.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.41, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $330.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $325.05. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $293.89 and a 1-year high of $365.02.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.75 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business’s revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.76 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.34%.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.