West Family Investments Inc. Buys 3,025 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

West Family Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 52.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,025 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 0.8% of West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,120,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Visa during the second quarter valued at $7,034,939,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% during 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 during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,847,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after buying an additional 1,067,631 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 target price on Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Macquarie cut their price target on Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $334.67 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $339.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $347.28. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $299.00 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The stock has a market cap of $609.67 billion, a PE ratio of 32.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

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.