Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA Cuts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 15.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,407 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,355 shares during the quarter. Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA's holdings in Visa were worth $2,596,000 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. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after buying an additional 1,689,926 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after buying an additional 866,596 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,356,614,000 after buying an additional 241,057 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after buying an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on V. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Macquarie lowered their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $372.84.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,108 shares of company stock valued at $36,771,200 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V traded down $2.21 on Tuesday, hitting $354.43. 6,964,583 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,837,239. The company has a 50 day moving average of $356.17 and a 200-day moving average of $341.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $653.98 billion, a PE ratio of 35.62, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. The firm's revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.51 EPS. 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.72%.

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.