Central Valley Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Central Valley Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,605 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 46 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.2% of Central Valley Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Central Valley Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,410,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,654,189,000 after buying an additional 726,299 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,003,569,000 after buying an additional 955,392 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,442,157,000 after buying an additional 434,217 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 1.6%

NYSE V opened at $345.62 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $268.23 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The company has a 50-day moving average of $346.16 and a 200-day moving average of $346.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $633.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.92.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on V shares. Mizuho upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.96.

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.