Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Gabelli Funds LLC

Key Points

• Gabelli Funds LLC reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 3.0%, owning 196,557 shares worth approximately $68.89 million after selling 5,993 shares in the first quarter.
• CEO Ryan Mcinerney and General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold substantial shares recently, indicating a notable decrease in insider ownership, with the CEO reducing his stake by 94.14%.
• The firm announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, with a yield of 0.7%, reflecting a dividend payout ratio of 23.05%.

Gabelli Funds LLC cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 196,557 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 5,993 shares during the quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $68,885,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 1st quarter worth $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth about $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho raised Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Macquarie boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business's 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 77,127 shares of company stock worth $28,340,553 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock traded down $0.25 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $350.10. The stock had a trading volume of 4,987,056 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,288,815. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $268.23 and a 12-month high of $375.51. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $347.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $347.44. The company has a market cap of $641.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.