Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 2.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 357,020 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 7,604 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 1.1% of Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $126,760,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of V. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Visa by 17.7% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares in the last quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at about $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in Visa by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after purchasing an additional 955,392 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on V shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. Robert W. Baird set a $410.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Macquarie lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $389.00.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $345.81 on Thursday. 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 company has a market cap of $633.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.90. The firm's fifty day moving average is $344.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.97. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $278.35 and a 52-week 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 analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion for 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%. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid 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 yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Visa

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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