Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC Raises Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,539 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,248,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 211.9% in the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

V stock opened at $312.80 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $289.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $277.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $582.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.15, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $251.61 and a one year high of $313.66.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on V shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Visa Company 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.