Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 2,923,660 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lessened its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,965,278 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,923,660 shares during the period. Visa comprises 1.4% of Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned 0.93% of Visa worth $4,452,877,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Black Diamond Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 59.3% in the 2nd quarter. Black Diamond Financial LLC now owns 1,751 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $460,000 after buying an additional 652 shares during the period. Waycross Partners LLC raised its stake in Visa by 10.4% during the second quarter. Waycross Partners LLC now owns 48,208 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,653,000 after acquiring an additional 4,555 shares during the period. Capital Wealth Planning LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.7% in the second quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 1,809,136 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $474,844,000 after acquiring an additional 29,771 shares during the last quarter. Abound Wealth Management boosted its stake in Visa by 8.4% in the second quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $221,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD bought a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter valued at approximately $4,041,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Citigroup cut their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $309.81.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $287.35 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $523.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The business’s fifty day moving average is $268.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.16. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $227.78 and a 1 year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.16 earnings per share. Visa’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 Announces Dividend

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

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.