Pictet North America Advisors SA Has $21.24 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Pictet North America Advisors SA reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 6.8%, holding 59,810 shares worth approximately $21.24 million as of its latest filing.
• Visa's recent quarterly earnings exceeded expectations, reporting $2.98 EPS with revenues of $10.17 billion, marking a 14.3% year-over-year increase.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 0.7%.

Pictet North America Advisors SA trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 6.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 59,810 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 4,332 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 2.1% of Pictet North America Advisors SA's holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Pictet North America Advisors SA's holdings in Visa were worth $21,236,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of V. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 17.7% during the first 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 buying an additional 1,651,954 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at about $373,240,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Visa 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 value of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $338.69 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $620.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92. 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 52 week low of $268.23 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $345.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $346.27.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business 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 payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 price target (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

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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