Stephens Inc. AR Sells 5,589 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Stephens Inc. AR reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 4.7%, selling 5,589 shares, and now holds 112,200 shares valued at approximately $39.8 million.
• Visa's stock has an average target price of $392.75 according to analysts, with several brokerages giving it a "buy" rating.
• The company reported strong quarterly earnings with $2.98 EPS and revenue growth of 14.3% year-over-year, exceeding analysts' expectations.

Stephens Inc. AR reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 4.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 112,200 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 5,589 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR's holdings in Visa were worth $39,837,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 82.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on V. Robert W. Baird set a $410.00 price objective on Visa and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Erste Group Bank lowered Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Citigroup started coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday. They set a "buy" rating and a $450.00 target price for the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 target price (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $392.75.

Visa Stock Down 0.6%

V stock opened at $345.10 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $632.50 billion, a PE ratio of 33.70, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.90. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $280.78 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $344.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $347.09.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa 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.

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.