Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 0.4%, now owning 270,266 shares valued at approximately $94.7 million, constituting 0.8% of its portfolio.
• Several large investors increased their stakes in Visa during the 1st quarter, with Global Endowment Management LP leading with a 31.6% increase.
• Visa reported strong quarterly earnings, with an EPS of $2.98 exceeding estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, reflecting an annual yield of 0.7%.

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 0.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 270,266 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,006 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 0.8% of Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $94,718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,042 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,519,000 after acquiring an additional 763 shares in the last quarter. Global Endowment Management LP increased its stake in Visa by 31.6% during the 1st quarter. Global Endowment Management LP now owns 1,934 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $678,000 after purchasing an additional 464 shares in the last quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc increased its stake in Visa by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc now owns 5,372 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,883,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV increased its stake in Visa by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 27,808 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $9,746,000 after purchasing an additional 1,282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. now owns 1,263 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $443,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price target for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.84.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 75,100 shares of company stock worth $27,643,224. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Down 0.3%

NYSE V opened at $344.44 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $350.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $347.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $265.23 and a one year high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $631.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.64, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.94.

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, 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 company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $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 fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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