Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.

Key Points

• T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. cut its stake in Visa Inc. by 50%, owning approximately 1.77 million shares worth $621.43 million after the sale.
• Analyst ratings for Visa show a consensus of "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $380.84, reflecting strong interest among analysts.
• Visa reported a quarterly EPS of $2.98, surpassing expectations, with revenue of $10.17 billion, marking a 14.3% increase year-over-year.

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 50.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,773,181 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,772,743 shares during the quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.10% of Visa worth $621,430,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Frisch Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 2.8% during the first quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,337 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $819,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. GDS Wealth Management grew its stake in Visa by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. GDS Wealth Management now owns 47,969 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $16,811,000 after purchasing an additional 2,651 shares in the last quarter. Capital Analysts LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 50,010 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $17,527,000 after buying an additional 1,269 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,973 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,743,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 520,808 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $170,128,000 after purchasing an additional 3,285 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. 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 report on Tuesday, May 27th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $342.51 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $265.31 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $627.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.45, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50-day moving average of $349.13 and a 200-day moving average of $347.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 77,127 shares of company stock worth $28,340,553. Company 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.

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