Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Trims Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,716 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 551 shares during the quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,071,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in V. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its stake in Visa by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Washington Trust Bank raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Washington Trust Bank now owns 3,258 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $896,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Tlwm raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Tlwm now owns 5,241 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,376,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, Meridian Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC now owns 8,160 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,196,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $305.76 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $240.97 and a fifty-two week high of $309.00. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $282.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $274.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $557.19 billion, a PE ratio of 31.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during 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 business’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 21.38%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on V shares. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho lifted their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Macquarie lifted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Insider Activity 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 approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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.