Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda.

Key Points

• Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda. has sold 50% of its stake in Visa, leaving it with 7,905 shares valued at approximately $2.8 million, making Visa its 15th largest holding.
• Visa reported Q2 earnings with an EPS of $2.98, exceeding analysts' expectations of $2.85, and the company's revenue increased by 14.3% year-over-year, reaching $10.17 billion.
• Visa's stock has a strong market presence, with institutional investors holding 82.15% of shares, and multiple analysts have set a price target increase, with Macquarie boosting their target from $380 to $425.

Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda. trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 50.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,905 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 7,905 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 1.0% of Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda.'s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda.'s holdings in Visa were worth $2,807,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted 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 worth $6,522,000 after buying an additional 6,883 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 68.9% in the fourth 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. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 9.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 42,120 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $14,761,000 after buying an additional 3,795 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 22.8% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 867,704 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $304,096,000 after buying an additional 161,161 shares during the period. Finally, NBT Bank N A NY boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.8% in the first quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 17,217 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $6,034,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $345.81 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $278.35 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The stock's 50-day moving average is $344.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market cap of $633.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $389.00.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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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