First Horizon Advisors Inc. Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,665 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 883 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,782,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $632,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Rodgers Brothers Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 64.0% in the 1st quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc. now owns 1,857 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $518,000 after purchasing an additional 725 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Capital LP increased its position in Visa by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 2,691 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $751,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 441.8% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,052,442 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $293,716,000 after buying an additional 858,180 shares during the period. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 3.1% in the first quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 64,463 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $17,990,000 after buying an additional 1,913 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 1.4 %

V opened at $307.39 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $288.57 and its 200-day moving average is $276.84. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $250.03 and a 52-week high of $312.44. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $560.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on V. Bank of America raised their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 target price (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

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.