Marquette Asset Management LLC Lowers Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Marquette Asset Management LLC lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,628 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 121 shares during the quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $424,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its position in Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after acquiring an additional 2,257,605 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,927,122,000 after buying an additional 763,505 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,229,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,272,846,000 after buying an additional 374,489 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,078,408,000 after buying an additional 85,123 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 7,542,434 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,734,835,000 after buying an additional 108,280 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock traded down $0.64 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $274.52. 6,840,615 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,528,673. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $279.24 and its 200-day moving average is $264.33. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.14 and a 12 month high of $290.96. The stock has a market cap of $504.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.67, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays raised their target price on Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $302.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,874 shares of company stock worth $5,506,827 in the last ninety days. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Visa

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.