Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Taurus Asset Management LLC

Taurus Asset Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.3% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 123,951 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,941 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 3.5% of Taurus Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Taurus Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $34,592,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Redburn Atlantic reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Macquarie upped their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $297.00 price objective (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.44.

Visa Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Visa stock traded up $3.51 on Wednesday, hitting $272.76. 5,323,535 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,868,612. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $272.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $274.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $498.86 billion, a PE ratio of 30.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $227.68 and a one year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were 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 owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 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. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.