Stephens Consulting LLC Lowers Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Stephens Consulting LLC trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 66.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 137 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 277 shares during the period. Stephens Consulting LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $48,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after buying an additional 1,689,926 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,526,660,000 after acquiring an additional 866,596 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after acquiring an additional 241,057 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,771,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $185,576.46. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 140,448 shares of company stock valued at $50,133,659 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $355.23 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $350.71 and a 200-day moving average of $338.05. The company has a market cap of $655.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.81, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.51 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Macquarie dropped their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $372.80.

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.