Guardian Investment Management Reduces Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Guardian Investment Management trimmed its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 66.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,540 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 22,900 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 2.5% of Guardian Investment Management’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. Guardian Investment Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,173,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Westend Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 211.9% in the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 52.9% in the first quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $322.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $312.04.

Visa Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of V traded up $0.37 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $277.84. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,746,446 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,363,829. The stock has a market cap of $508.15 billion, a PE ratio of 31.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96. 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 52 week low of $228.03 and a 52 week high of $293.07. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $274.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $272.66.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted 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 net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.16 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.