Tower Bridge Advisors Sells 7,910 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Tower Bridge Advisors lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 69,213 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 7,910 shares during the period. Visa comprises 1.6% of Tower Bridge Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Tower Bridge Advisors’ holdings in Visa were worth $18,166,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Grove Bank & Trust grew its stake in Visa by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 17,332 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,549,000 after buying an additional 609 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its stake in shares of Visa by 17.0% in the 2nd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 716,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $188,017,000 after purchasing an additional 104,160 shares during the last quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. now owns 43,577 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,438,000 after purchasing an additional 1,943 shares during the last quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 519,991 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $136,482,000 after purchasing an additional 20,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC now owns 5,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,357,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded down $0.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $267.44. The company had a trading volume of 3,697,448 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,178,655. The stock has a market cap of $489.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.88, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $227.78 and a 12 month high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $265.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $273.30.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on V shares. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. William Blair upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Citigroup reduced their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Macquarie reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $308.50.

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.