Visa Inc. $V Stock Position Trimmed by Giverny Capital Inc.

Giverny Capital Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 393,549 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,168 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 5.1% of Giverny Capital Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Giverny Capital Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $137,923,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $528,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $306,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund boosted its stake in Visa by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,727,000 after buying an additional 30,185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 2,568 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $811,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Macquarie raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Five equities research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $344.44 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $631.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.64, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $350.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $347.44. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $265.23 and a 52 week 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, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.42 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,772,810. This represents a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 75,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,643,224 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa 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.