Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. Reduces Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 32.7%, now owning 9,980 shares valued at about $3.54 million, making Visa its 20th biggest holding.
• Several institutional investors recently adjusted their stakes in Visa, with Lakeridge Wealth Management increasing its stake by 5.7% and Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund raising its stake by 14.5%.
• Visa's stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, with a price target ranging from $389.00 to $425.00.

Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 32.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,980 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 4,851 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 1.3% of Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd.'s holdings in Visa were worth $3,543,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $528,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund raised its stake in Visa by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Visa by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $862,000. Finally, Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC raised its stake in Visa by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $22,040,000 after purchasing an additional 3,484 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on V shares. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 target price (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $389.00.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $346.66 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $635.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The business's 50 day moving average price is $343.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $346.98. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $275.35 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

Visa 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.

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