Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC

Key Points

• Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC cut its Visa stock position by 49.5% in the first quarter, holding 1,237 shares worth $433,000 at the quarter's end.
• Analysts have generally maintained positive ratings on Visa, with UBS upgrading their price target to $415.00 and providing a "buy" rating.
• Visa reported better-than-expected earnings with $2.98 EPS for the latest quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates, and recorded a revenue increase of 14.3% year-over-year.

Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 49.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,237 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,214 shares during the quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $433,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Visa by 38,416.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $3,518,533,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $673,689,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $4,210,207,000 after buying an additional 1,723,785 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded down $0.64 during trading on Thursday, reaching $350.23. 4,322,638 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,283,867. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $348.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $347.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $641.89 billion, a PE ratio of 34.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $268.23 and a 52-week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.42 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,904,875. The trade was a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,293 shares of company stock valued at $8,114,295. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.