Balentine LLC Sells 41,653 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Balentine LLC decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 93.9% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,686 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 41,653 shares during the period. Balentine LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $705,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $39,685,966,000 after acquiring an additional 788,908 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,578,025,000 after purchasing an additional 626,618 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,264,508,000 after purchasing an additional 968,008 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $3,895,015,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 8,900,179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,317,162,000 after purchasing an additional 166,767 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 2.2 %

NYSE V opened at $285.61 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $227.78 and a 12 month high of $290.96. The company has a market capitalization of $520.47 billion, a PE ratio of 31.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $266.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $273.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.16 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $297.00 target price (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Macquarie reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $309.54.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company 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.