Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Ascent Group LLC

Ascent Group LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 39,823 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 789 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 0.8% of Ascent Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $10,949,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. increased its position in Visa by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. now owns 4,101 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,128,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1,620.7% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 72,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $20,046,000 after buying an additional 68,654 shares in the last quarter. Atom Investors LP raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the third quarter. Atom Investors LP now owns 44,687 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,287,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,982,000. Finally, Paradigm Capital Management LLC NV acquired a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $1,034,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa 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 directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.1 %

V stock opened at $315.08 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $292.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $278.55. 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 $586.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.14 and a 52 week high of $316.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

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.