Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC Has $7.67 Million Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 59.7%, holding 21,886 shares valued at $7.67 million after selling 32,364 shares in the first quarter.
• Several large investors, including Vanguard Group Inc. and Northern Trust Corp, have increased their positions in Visa, with institutional and hedge funds owning 82.15% of the company's stock.
• Visa reported earnings of $2.98 per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates and reflecting a 14.3% year-over-year revenue growth, alongside announcing a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share.

Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 59.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,886 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 32,364 shares during the quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $7,670,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $6,654,189,000 after buying an additional 726,299 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $4,210,207,000 after buying an additional 1,723,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,796,415 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $4,045,149,000 after buying an additional 164,008 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on V shares. Oppenheimer increased 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. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho upgraded shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.84.

Visa Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $343.5530 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $347.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $347.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $629.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $265.31 and a 52-week high of $375.51.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.05%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 77,127 shares of company stock valued at $28,340,553 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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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