Americana Partners LLC Boosts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Americana Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 41,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 4,827 shares during the quarter. Americana Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $11,447,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. WFA Asset Management Corp grew 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 last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 7.4% during the first quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 31,932 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,912,000 after buying an additional 2,199 shares during the period. Edge Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth about $585,000. 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 worth $14,046,000 after buying an additional 16,078 shares during the period. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth about $9,574,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $320.70.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of V opened at $290.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $281.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $273.63. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $239.20 and a 1-year high of $296.34. The stock has a market cap of $529.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.17 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.38%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.