Baskin Financial Services Inc. Trims Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Baskin Financial Services Inc. reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 173,417 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,565 shares during the period. Visa comprises 4.7% of Baskin Financial Services Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Baskin Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $61,571,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.5% during the first 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 last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.5% during the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth about $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 5.9% in the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after acquiring an additional 3,484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 7.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after acquiring an additional 955,392 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $343.05 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $628.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.50, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $277.99 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $343.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $346.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.42 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on V. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $415.00 target price (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $389.00.

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.