Freedom Investment Management Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Freedom Investment Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,883 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 110 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,799,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of V. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,209,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,185,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the second quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 11.1% during the first quarter. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC now owns 301 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $105,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.4%

NYSE:V opened at $347.34 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $280.78 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The company has a market cap of $636.60 billion, a PE ratio of 33.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $344.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $347.60.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $410.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $392.75.

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.