EP Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 15,312 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa Inc. by 6.6% during the first quarter, acquiring an additional 15,312 shares and bringing its total to 246,003 shares valued at approximately $86.21 million.
• Visa reported earnings of $2.98 per share for the latest quarter, exceeding expectations, with a revenue of $10.17 billion, marking a 14.3% year-over-year increase.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, which will be paid on September 2nd, representing a 0.7% dividend yield for investors.

EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 6.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 246,003 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 15,312 shares during the quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $86,214,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of V. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth about $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, Global X Japan Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth about $56,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $351.92 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $645.00 billion, a PE ratio of 34.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm's 50 day moving average is $348.50 and its 200 day moving average is $347.35. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $268.23 and a 1 year high of $375.51.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 68,507 shares of company stock valued at $25,213,475. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on V shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target 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. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Macquarie raised their target price on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their target price for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 target price (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.84.

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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