McIlrath & Eck LLC Trims Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• McIlrath & Eck LLC significantly reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 48.6% during the first quarter, resulting in a total of $660,000 in Visa shares.
• Insider sales at Visa included Paul D. Fabara selling over 11,000 shares for approximately $4.36 million, reflecting a 30.58% decrease in his position.
• Various research firms have recently upgraded their ratings on Visa, with Mizuho raising its price target from $359 to $425, indicating strong market confidence in the stock.

McIlrath & Eck LLC cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 48.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,884 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,784 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $660,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 50.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $6,522,000 after purchasing an additional 6,883 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 68.9% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,733,000 after acquiring an additional 4,817 shares during the last quarter. J. Goldman & Co LP acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,398,000. Lionshead Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $271,000. Finally, LMR Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,467,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on V shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley upped 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. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Visa Stock Down 1.2%

NYSE:V traded down $3.98 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $339.51. The stock had a trading volume of 2,422,367 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,442,272. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $268.23 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $347.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $347.03. The company has a market cap of $622.25 billion, a PE ratio of 33.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.42 earnings per share. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.05%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.