Principal Street Partners LLC Increases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Principal Street Partners LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 23.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,559 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,455 shares during the quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,011,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Arjuna Capital boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $731,000. Mechanics Bank Trust Department increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 32,460 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,520,000 after acquiring an additional 2,410 shares during the period. Chicago Capital LLC raised its position in Visa by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft grew its position in Visa by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft now owns 58,655 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,299,000 after purchasing an additional 4,988 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was 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 owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Macquarie boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $313.05 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $583.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $289.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $277.58. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $251.61 and a twelve month high of $314.50.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

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.