Sargent Investment Group LLC Purchases 59 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sargent Investment Group LLC lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,180 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. Sargent Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $874,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in Visa by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 46.9% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 50,328 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,046,000 after acquiring an additional 16,078 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in Visa by 16.0% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 58,506 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,328,000 after purchasing an additional 8,086 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 25.6% during the 1st quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. now owns 3,928 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,096,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the period. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 5.4% in the first quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,850 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,865,000 after buying an additional 708 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of V stock traded up $0.22 on Thursday, reaching $309.70. 1,381,300 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,989,399. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $285.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $275.41. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $245.34 and a twelve month high of $312.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $564.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.98, a PEG ratio of 2.07 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, 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 company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors 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. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.