Sierra Capital LLC Has $978,000 Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sierra Capital LLC lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 38.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,790 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,751 shares during the quarter. Sierra Capital LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $978,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Garrett Wealth Advisory Group LLC raised its position in Visa by 44.4% during the first quarter. Garrett Wealth Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,383 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $835,000 after acquiring an additional 733 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE raised its position in Visa by 2.1% during the first quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 20,410 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,153,000 after acquiring an additional 413 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd raised its position in Visa by 93.3% during the first quarter. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd now owns 86,521 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $29,985,000 after acquiring an additional 41,762 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Visa by 6.3% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 46,312 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $16,231,000 after acquiring an additional 2,742 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 9.7% in the first quarter. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,026 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock traded down $8.17 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $347.71. 7,577,927 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,821,741. The firm has a market cap of $641.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 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's 50-day simple moving average is $356.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $342.56. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. The company's revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.51 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, June 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. Oppenheimer boosted 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $372.84.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business's 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. The trade was a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 over the last ninety days. Corporate 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.