Means Investment CO. Inc. Cuts Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Means Investment CO. Inc. lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 28.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,476 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,964 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 0.7% of Means Investment CO. Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Means Investment CO. Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,125,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in V. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $528,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $306,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $57,727,000 after purchasing an additional 30,185 shares during the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 2,568 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $811,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on V shares. Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $400.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. Macquarie decreased their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $372.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $2,978,899.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $185,576.46. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,772,810. This represents a 63.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 101,098 shares of company stock worth $36,738,526 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 4.9%

NYSE V opened at $340.16 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $375.51. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $351.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $627.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.19, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 52.86% and a return on equity of 56.28%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.51 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

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.