Raymond James Financial Inc. Has $2.10 Billion Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial Inc. has reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 3.2%, now owning approximately $2.10 billion worth of shares, making Visa the firm's 16th largest position.
• Other institutional investors have significantly increased their stakes, with GAMMA Investing LLC raising its holdings in Visa by over 38,416% in the first quarter alone.
• Visa has reported a quarterly earnings per share of $2.98, surpassing analyst expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 to be paid soon.

Raymond James Financial Inc. decreased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,991,437 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 195,762 shares during the period. Visa comprises 0.8% of Raymond James Financial Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.32% of Visa worth $2,099,759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of V. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 38,416.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth $3,518,533,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in 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 last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $673,689,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 295.4% in the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 2,362,202 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $746,550,000 after buying an additional 1,764,781 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the 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 directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,772,810. This represents a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 75,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,643,224. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on V shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 target price (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.84.

Visa Trading Down 0.3%

V opened at $344.44 on Friday. The firm's fifty day moving average is $350.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $347.34. 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 firm has a market cap of $631.29 billion, a PE ratio of 33.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $265.23 and a twelve month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.42 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.