Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Decreases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,122 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,265 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Visa were worth $18,667,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of V. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 52.9% during the 1st quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V traded up $0.56 on Friday, reaching $267.36. The company had a trading volume of 5,110,843 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,227,860. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $227.78 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $488.98 billion, a PE ratio of 29.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $266.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $273.59.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.16 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $297.00 price target (down previously from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $307.25.

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.