Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by Principal Securities Inc.

Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 65,300 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,787 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $17,954,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its holdings 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 worth $632,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 7.4% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Edge Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $585,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Visa by 46.9% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $9,574,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup increased their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Compass Point started coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Four investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $320.70.

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 in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

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 company has a market capitalization of $529.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day moving average is $281.00 and its 200-day moving average is $273.63. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $239.20 and a fifty-two week high of $296.34.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is 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.