Northstar Financial Companies Inc. Reduces Position in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Northstar Financial Companies Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 19.2%, holding 22,455 shares worth approximately $7.87 million, making Visa the second largest position in its investment portfolio.
• Visa reported earnings per share (EPS) of $2.98 for the latest quarter, exceeding analyst expectations of $2.85, along with a revenue of $10.17 billion, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 14.3%.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59, translating to an annualized dividend of $2.36 with a yield of approximately 0.7%.

Northstar Financial Companies Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 19.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,455 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 5,336 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 8.5% of Northstar Financial Companies Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Northstar Financial Companies Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $7,870,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $528,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $306,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its holdings in Visa by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 19.8% in the 4th quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $57,727,000 after purchasing an additional 30,185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 2,568 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $811,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of V stock traded up $2.06 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $351.92. 3,670,969 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,856,767. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $268.23 and a one year high of $375.51. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $348.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $347.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $645.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.42 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Macquarie upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 68,507 shares of company stock valued at $25,213,475 over the last quarter. 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.