Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,520 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,320 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $10,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Visa by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $39,685,966,000 after acquiring an additional 788,908 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,578,025,000 after purchasing an additional 626,618 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.4% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,264,508,000 after purchasing an additional 968,008 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after purchasing an additional 345,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of V stock opened at $309.82 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $284.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $274.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $564.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.84, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $244.11 and a fifty-two week high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. 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 dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 21.38%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.