Heritage Investors Management Corp Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Heritage Investors Management Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 42,370 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,271 shares during the quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $11,650,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $39,685,966,000 after acquiring an additional 788,908 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised 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 acquiring an additional 626,618 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised 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 acquiring an additional 968,008 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 2.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,833,981,000 after purchasing an additional 345,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in 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 valued at $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on V. Bank of America upped their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Macquarie upped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley upped 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:V opened at $293.36 on Wednesday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $281.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.97. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $240.97 and a 52 week high of $296.34. The company has a market cap of $534.59 billion, a PE ratio of 30.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders 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 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.38%.

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.