Paragon Capital Management LLC Sells 193 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Paragon Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 9,152 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 193 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 1.7% of Paragon Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Paragon Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,250,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Visa by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,654,189,000 after acquiring an additional 726,299 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,003,569,000 after purchasing an additional 955,392 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,442,157,000 after purchasing an additional 434,217 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $329.89 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $604.63 billion, a PE ratio of 32.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.87. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $299.00 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $342.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $348.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 26.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This trade represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 23,897 shares of company stock valued at $8,164,561 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.00.

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.