Cullen Investment Group LTD. Sells 1,498 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Cullen Investment Group LTD. has reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by selling 1,498 shares, bringing its holdings down to 28,545 shares, which represent 1.4% of its total investments.
• Visa's earnings report showed a successful quarter, with earnings per share of $2.98, exceeding analysts' expectations, and a year-over-year revenue increase of 14.3% to $10.17 billion.
• Brokerages maintain a positive outlook on Visa, with multiple firms raising their price targets and a majority of analysts rating the stock as a "Buy" or "Outperform."

Cullen Investment Group LTD. cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,545 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,498 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.4% of Cullen Investment Group LTD.'s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position. Cullen Investment Group LTD.'s holdings in Visa were worth $10,135,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. 1 North Wealth Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $38,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $54,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on V. Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $339.33 on Friday. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $347.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $346.94. The stock has a market cap of $621.92 billion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $268.23 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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 firm had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company's revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.

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