Verity & Verity LLC Trims Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Verity & Verity LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 21.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 541 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 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 given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Up 0.8 %

V stock opened at $312.16 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50 day moving average of $287.57 and a 200 day moving average of $276.32. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $245.60 and a twelve month high of $312.44. The firm has a market cap of $568.85 billion, a PE ratio of 32.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Visa 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.