Hennessy Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,647,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alaethes Wealth LLC increased its stake in Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 8,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,302,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc grew its stake in Visa by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc now owns 5,051 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,410,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Visa by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $571,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Holistic Financial Partners grew its stake in Visa by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Holistic Financial Partners now owns 1,975 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GoalVest Advisory LLC grew its stake in Visa by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 1,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $317,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock traded down $4.91 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $261.68. The stock had a trading volume of 6,505,279 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,749,371. The stock has a market cap of $478.60 billion, a PE ratio of 29.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $274.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $273.41. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $227.68 and a 52-week high of $290.96.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 34,402 shares of company stock worth $9,559,382. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on V. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Robert W. Baird increased 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. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.56.

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.