Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. Cuts Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 7.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,183 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 948 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 2.5% of Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.'s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.'s holdings in Visa were worth $3,919,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of V. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $724,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Capstone Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 872 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $276,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 4,003 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,265,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kennebec Savings Bank lifted its stake in Visa by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank now owns 3,372 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price objective on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $375.52.

Visa Trading Down 0.2%

Visa stock traded down $0.67 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $349.14. The stock had a trading volume of 3,365,840 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,784,931. The stock has a market cap of $644.22 billion, a PE ratio of 35.09, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $356.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $343.40.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion for 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%. The company's revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.51 EPS. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. The trade was a 30.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 101,108 shares of company stock valued at $36,771,200 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.