Visa Inc. $V Holdings Lowered by Giverny Capital Inc.

Key Points

• Giverny Capital reduced its Visa stake by 1.6% in the second quarter, selling 6,457 shares and retaining 389,900 shares valued at approximately $133.8 million. Institutional investors collectively own 82.15% of Visa.
• Visa insiders sold 104,537 shares worth about $37.5 million over the past 90 days, including significant sales by CEO Ryan McInerney and insider Tullier Mahon under disclosed transactions.
• Analysts remain bullish on Visa: the stock has a consensus “Buy” rating and a $416.62 target price. Visa also exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, with revenue up 14.4% year over year.

Giverny Capital Inc. decreased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 389,900 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 6,457 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 4.5% of Giverny Capital Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Giverny Capital Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $133,771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 50.1% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $6,522,000 after purchasing an additional 6,883 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,733,000 after buying an additional 4,817 shares during the period. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. grew its stake in Visa by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 10,941 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,834,000 after buying an additional 477 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY raised its holdings in Visa by 16.9% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 1,133 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $402,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the period. Finally, Schnieders Capital Management LLC. raised its holdings in Visa by 13.8% during the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 18,367 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $6,521,000 after acquiring an additional 2,230 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 20,970 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.25, for a total value of $7,135,042.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,162,953.50. This represents a 58.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Tullier Mahon sold 57,272 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $364.97, for a total transaction of $20,902,561.84. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 49,662 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,125,140.14. This represents a 53.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 104,537 shares of company stock worth $37,540,837 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on V. Wolfe Research restated an "outperform" rating and set a $460.00 target price (up from $435.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Barclays began coverage on Visa in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $420.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $466.00 target price (up from $412.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, August 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $430.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $416.62.

Visa Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE V opened at $374.46 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $363.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $333.40. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $293.89 and a twelve month high of $385.57. The company has a market capitalization of $668.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.84, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.76.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.23 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $11.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.40 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 67.68% and a net margin of 50.78%.The company's revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.98 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 22.79%.

Visa Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world's largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa's network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa's product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.

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