Empower Advisory Group LLC Has $6.45 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,170 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,134 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,451,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 17.7% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,847,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,253,245,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067,631 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $373,240,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $400.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,117. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 23,897 shares of company stock worth $8,164,561 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of V stock opened at $329.89 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $604.63 billion, a PE ratio of 32.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.87. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $299.00 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The business’s fifty day moving average is $342.16 and its 200 day moving average is $348.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 26.25%.

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.