Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 37.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,950 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 11,203 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,982,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of V. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in Visa by 787.1% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,296,820,000 after acquiring an additional 4,099,122 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Visa during the first quarter worth $511,321,000. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 40.1% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,671,866,000 after acquiring an additional 1,715,686 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its holdings in Visa by 14,306.3% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,500,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $390,595,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489,856 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Visa by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,895,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,659,169,000 after acquiring an additional 1,323,238 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $287.35 on Monday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $268.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $273.16. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $227.78 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market cap of $523.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.11, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.16 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. William Blair upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Citigroup lowered their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $297.00 target price (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $309.81.

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.