Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 4.1%, owning 841,887 shares valued at approximately $295 million as of its latest SEC filing.
• Insider trading activity includes CEO Ryan Mcinerney selling 8,630 shares for over $3 million, representing a 94.14% drop in his position, while Paul D. Fabara also sold 11,636 shares.
• Visa reported a quarterly EPS of $2.98, exceeding estimates, with annual dividends announced at $0.59 per share, reflecting a 0.7% yield for shareholders.

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 4.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 841,887 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 33,073 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $295,048,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FWL Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,005,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 2.9% in the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $360,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,209,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Capstone Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 872 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $276,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headinvest LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 4,003 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,265,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This represents a 30.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 89,913 shares of company stock valued at $32,902,432. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 1.9%

Visa stock traded down $6.66 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $338.81. 8,655,366 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,179,344. The business has a fifty day moving average of $355.06 and a 200 day moving average of $346.75. 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 firm has a market cap of $625.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.09, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $254.51 and a 12-month high of $375.51.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on V. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Macquarie boosted their target price on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer boosted 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. Mizuho raised Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.84.

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.