ARS Investment Partners LLC Trims Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

ARS Investment Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,473 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 75 shares during the quarter. ARS Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $587,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. raised its position in Visa by 1.2% during the first quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 77,046 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $17,371,000 after acquiring an additional 951 shares in the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $677,000. Point72 Europe London LLP raised its position in Visa by 56.4% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP now owns 24,871 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,167,000 after acquiring an additional 8,971 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its position in Visa by 9.1% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 371,379 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $83,731,000 after acquiring an additional 30,849 shares during the period. Finally, BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 7.9% during the first quarter. BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,257 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,469,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773 shares during the period. 81.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 24,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total value of $5,766,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 24,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total value of $5,766,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 2,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total transaction of $552,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $55,706,880. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 81,550 shares of company stock worth $19,795,806 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of V opened at $244.64 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $241.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $232.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $455.48 billion, a PE ratio of 31.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $174.60 and a 1 year high of $250.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 1.49.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $8.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.06 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.94% and a return on equity of 49.42%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.98 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 8.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 11th were issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 10th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.84%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $255.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, August 29th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $248.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Visa from $265.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $275.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $273.77.

About Visa

Visa Inc operates as a payments technology company worldwide. 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, click to pay; Visa Direct, a real-time payments network; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral B2B cross-border payments network; Visa Treasury as a Service, a cross-border consumer payments business; 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.