Pictet North America Advisors SA Sells 2,878 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Pictet North America Advisors SA lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 58,554 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,878 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 1.7% of Pictet North America Advisors SA’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Pictet North America Advisors SA’s holdings in Visa were worth $15,369,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Visa by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $39,685,966,000 after purchasing an additional 788,908 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its position in Visa by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,578,025,000 after purchasing an additional 626,618 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,264,508,000 after buying an additional 968,008 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,895,015,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,524,329 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,725,079,000 after buying an additional 141,566 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $308.50.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V traded down $0.50 on Friday, hitting $267.44. The company had a trading volume of 3,697,448 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,178,655. The company has a market capitalization of $489.13 billion, a PE ratio of 29.88, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $265.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $273.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $227.78 and a 12-month high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.16 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

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.