Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Bahl & Gaynor Inc.

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 20,584 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 278 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,308,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Stevens Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,963,000. CenterBook Partners LP boosted its position in Visa by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. CenterBook Partners LP now owns 99,717 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $35,405,000 after purchasing an additional 6,419 shares in the last quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC boosted its position in Visa by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 29,095 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,823 shares in the last quarter. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 24.3% during the 2nd quarter. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. now owns 37,920 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $13,463,000 after purchasing an additional 7,415 shares during the period. Finally, Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 25.2% during the 2nd quarter. Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Ltd now owns 124,417 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $42,522,000 after purchasing an additional 25,058 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,117. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. The trade was a 7.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. UBS Group set a $425.00 price target on Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.00.

Visa Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $328.24 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $299.00 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The stock has a market cap of $597.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.15, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a fifty day moving average of $340.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $347.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

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.