Visa Inc. $V Stake Trimmed by Patten & Patten Inc. TN

Key Points

• Patten & Patten Inc. TN reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 1.6%, selling 1,652 shares, which now represent about 2.4% of their investment portfolio, valued at $37.17 million.
• Several large investors, including Fjarde AP Fonden and UBS, have increased their holdings in Visa, highlighting strong institutional interest with over 82% of the stock owned by institutional investors.
• Analysts have mixed views on Visa, with one downgrade to "hold," yet others reaffirming buy ratings and raising price targets, resulting in an average target of $389.00.

Patten & Patten Inc. TN lowered its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 104,704 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,652 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 2.4% of Patten & Patten Inc. TN's investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Patten & Patten Inc. TN's holdings in Visa were worth $37,175,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $159,523,000 after buying an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.5% in the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the second quarter worth $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.2% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Macquarie upped their price target on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 price target (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $389.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Up 1.9%

V stock opened at $341.90 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $280.78 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $626.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $344.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $346.89.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Visa 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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