Comerica Bank Trims Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Comerica Bank lessened its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 624,847 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 14,289 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 0.7% of Comerica Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Comerica Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $164,004,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the first quarter worth $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 211.9% in the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Six equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.22.

Visa Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $275.17 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $271.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $273.35. 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 $293.07. The firm has a market cap of $503.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.75, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly 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 last year, the company earned $2.16 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible 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.