Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Holdings Lessened by Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC

Key Points

• Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 5.2%, selling 4,388 shares to own a total of 80,368 shares worth approximately $28.17 million.
• Institutional investors now own 82.15% of Visa’s stock, reflecting strong interest from several hedge funds, including Northern Trust Corp's 18.0% stake increase during the fourth quarter.
• Visa recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 0.66% and a payout ratio of 23.72%.

Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 5.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,368 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 4,388 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 2.5% of Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC's holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $28,166,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Carrera Capital Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 13.2% in the first quarter. Carrera Capital Advisors now owns 1,726 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $605,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. Wealthstream Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Wealthstream Advisors Inc. now owns 1,426 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $500,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 11.6% in the 1st quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 124,819 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $43,744,000 after buying an additional 12,942 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its stake in Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 35,988 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $12,612,000 after buying an additional 382 shares during the period. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC increased its stake in Visa by 20.8% in the 1st quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC now owns 221 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $77,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $379.04.

Visa Price Performance

V traded down $1.51 during trading on Thursday, reaching $349.40. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,588,688 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,582,038. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $254.51 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company has a market cap of $644.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.12, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $355.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $345.86.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 59.03%. The business's revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.05%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 89,913 shares of company stock worth $32,902,432. 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.