Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. Lowers Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 7.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,941 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,177 shares during the period. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $5,236,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC raised its position in Visa by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $724,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. FWL Investment Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,005,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Capstone Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in Visa by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Capstone Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 872 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $276,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC raised its position in Visa by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 4,003 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,265,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Kennebec Savings Bank raised its position in Visa by 0.9% during the first quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank now owns 3,372 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,182,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Down 2.3%

Visa stock traded down $8.17 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $347.71. 7,577,927 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,821,741. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $641.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.95, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.92. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $356.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $342.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.86% and a return on equity of 56.28%. Visa's revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.51 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on V. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Five investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $372.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. 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 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.