Bailard Inc. Sells 1,289 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bailard Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 160,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,289 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.2% of Bailard Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $44,237,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth $1,212,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the first quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,914 shares during the period. Arjuna Capital boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $731,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on V shares. William Blair upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Four investment 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Insider Activity at Visa

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

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $293.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $281.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $273.97. The firm has a market cap of $534.59 billion, a PE ratio of 30.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $240.97 and a 1-year high of $296.34.

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, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.38%.

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.