Wedmont Private Capital Grows Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Wedmont Private Capital increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 7.4% in Q2, bringing its total holdings to $9.75 million across 27,252 shares.
• CEO Ryan Mcinerney and General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold shares recently, with Mcinerney's sale representing a 94.14% decrease in his position, raising concerns regarding insider trading.
• Analysts largely maintain positive outlooks for Visa, with one Strong Buy rating and twenty Buy ratings, contributing to an average price target of $385.96.

Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,252 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 1,867 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital's holdings in Visa were worth $9,750,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 38,416.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at $3,518,533,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $673,689,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Visa by 17.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,847,953,000 after buying an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa 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 value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company'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 completion of the sale, the general counsel directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:V traded up $3.89 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $342.07. 13,657,860 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,986,314. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $345.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $346.41. The company has a market cap of $626.94 billion, a PE ratio of 33.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $268.23 and a 12 month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. 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 firm posted $2.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Mizuho upgraded shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Macquarie upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.96.

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.