Prentiss Smith & Co. Inc. Trims Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Prentiss Smith & Co. Inc. trimmed its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,094 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 131 shares during the quarter. Prentiss Smith & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of V. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $5,171,271,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after acquiring an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,955,403,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the company’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 $889,868.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 101,098 shares of company stock valued at $36,738,526. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on V. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $372.80.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $340.16 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $375.51. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $351.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $338.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $627.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 52.86% and a return on equity of 56.28%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

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.