Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Cuts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,739 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 209 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $3,895,015,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after acquiring an additional 4,710,188 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Visa by 787.1% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,296,820,000 after acquiring an additional 4,099,122 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 40.1% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,671,866,000 after acquiring an additional 1,715,686 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its stake in Visa by 14,306.3% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,500,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $390,595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,856 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on V shares. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $322.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock traded up $5.72 during trading on Friday, reaching $259.46. 7,062,213 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,558,497. The firm has a market cap of $474.54 billion, a PE ratio of 28.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $227.78 and a 1-year high of $290.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $270.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $274.30.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.16 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

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.