Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. Has $5.74 Million Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 8.1% during the second quarter, with holdings now valued at $5.74 million.
• Visa received a mix of ratings from analysts, with Barclays raising the target price to $408, while Erste Group downgraded the stock from "buy" to "hold."
• CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa on October 1st, reflecting a 95.13% decrease in his ownership of the stock.

Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 8.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,157 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 1,216 shares during the period. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $5,737,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 82.0% in the second quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on V. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $410.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $389.74.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the 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 of the company's stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.8%

V opened at $347.17 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $280.78 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $344.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $347.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $636.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.90.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.42 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is 23.05%.

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.

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