Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Bristlecone Advisors LLC

Bristlecone Advisors LLC lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,560 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,347 shares during the quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $8,010,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.9% in the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.8% in the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,209,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.9% in the second quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,185,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.9% in the second quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 11.1% in the first quarter. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC now owns 301 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $105,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa 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 sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% 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 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. UBS Group set a $425.00 price objective on Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.00.

Visa Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE V opened at $344.53 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $287.19 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $631.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.74, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.08. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $344.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $348.27.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The business had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.11%.

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.