United Asset Strategies Inc. Has $4.48 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

United Asset Strategies Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 16.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,784 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,486 shares during the quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Visa by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.0% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,654,189,000 after buying an additional 726,299 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,210,207,000 after acquiring an additional 1,723,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,796,415 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,045,149,000 after acquiring an additional 164,008 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.4%

V opened at $343.99 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $348.54 and a 200-day moving average of $347.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $630.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 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 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $265.31 and a 1-year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.42 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. 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. Macquarie increased their price target on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.84.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. This represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders 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.