Emerald Advisers LLC Trims Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Emerald Advisers LLC decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,630 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 238 shares during the quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $953,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $39,685,966,000 after purchasing an additional 788,908 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Visa by 2.7% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,578,025,000 after buying an additional 626,618 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Visa by 5.4% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,264,508,000 after buying an additional 968,008 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $3,895,015,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $2,317,162,000 after acquiring an additional 166,767 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $279.37 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $227.78 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $266.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $273.11. The firm has a market cap of $509.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.21, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.16 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. William Blair raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Citigroup dropped 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 reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $309.54.

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.