Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Sells 2,209 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 3.0%, owning 72,321 shares valued at approximately $25.68 million as of the latest SEC filing.
• Major investors like GAMMA Investing LLC and Vanguard Group Inc. significantly increased their holdings in Visa during the first quarter, with GAMMA's stake increasing by 38,416.3%.
• Research firms have raised Visa's target prices, with Mizuho increasing it from $359.00 to $425.00 and the consensus target price now sitting at $385.96.

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 72,321 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 2,209 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 0.7% of Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $25,678,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Visa by 38,416.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after acquiring an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $3,518,533,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $673,689,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Visa by 17.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,847,953,000 after buying an additional 1,651,954 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on V. Mizuho raised Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their target price for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Visa Stock Up 0.8%

Visa stock opened at $344.28 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $345.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $346.37. 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 firm has a market cap of $630.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $268.23 and a twelve 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. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. 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 is presently 23.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company's 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 directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate 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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