Meridian Management Co. Cuts Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Meridian Management Co. trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 26.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,945 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,836 shares during the quarter. Meridian Management Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,781,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 2.9% in the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $360,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 0.8% in the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,209,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 0.9% in the second quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,185,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 2.9% in the second quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $360,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 11.1% in the first quarter. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC now owns 301 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $105,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% 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, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 1.2%

NYSE V opened at $336.74 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $617.17 billion, a PE ratio of 32.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a fifty day moving average of $344.54 and a 200 day moving average of $348.57. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $290.76 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.11%.

Visa 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.