Sterling Investment Counsel LLC Has $1.52 Million Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Sterling Investment Counsel LLC reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 65.5%, now owning 4,284 shares valued at approximately $1.52 million.
• Several institutional investors increased their positions in Visa, with Brighton Jones LLC raising its stake by 50.1% and Revolve Wealth Partners LLC by 68.9%.
• The recent quarterly earnings report from Visa showed $2.98 earnings per share, exceeding analysts' expectations by $0.13 and marking a 14.3% revenue increase year-over-year.

Sterling Investment Counsel LLC lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 65.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,284 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 8,130 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 0.9% of Sterling Investment Counsel LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $1,521,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 50.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $6,522,000 after acquiring an additional 6,883 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,733,000 after purchasing an additional 4,817 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Visa by 8.4% in the first quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,954 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,386,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 11.6% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 163,382 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $57,259,000 after purchasing an additional 17,036 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.2% during the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 25,385 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $8,463,000 after purchasing an additional 1,031 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on V. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. 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 target on the stock. Macquarie increased their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.96.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $349.90 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $343.78 and a 200-day moving average of $346.81. The company has a market cap of $641.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $273.24 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its 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 company had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. Visa's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.42 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. 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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