Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.

Key Points

• Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. has reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 62.6%, now owning 1,365 shares valued at $485,000.
• Multiple hedge funds have increased their stakes in Visa, with UBS AM acquiring over 955,000 shares, raising its position by 7.2% during the last quarter.
• Visa reported earnings of $2.98 per share for the last quarter, surpassing estimates, with revenue of $10.17 billion, a year-over-year increase of 14.3%.

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 62.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,365 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 2,289 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $485,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 5.7% in the first quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund boosted its position in Visa by 14.5% in the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $159,523,000 after buying an additional 57,800 shares during the last quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in Visa by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,003,569,000 after buying an additional 955,392 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on V. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 price objective (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating on the stock. Finally, Macquarie lifted their price target on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $335.09 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $344.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $346.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $614.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $270.00 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.42 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's payout ratio is 23.05%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

About Visa

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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