Sentry Investment Management LLC Buys 677 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sentry Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,148 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 677 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.1% of Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,515,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Hilltop National Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth $1,212,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.5% in the first quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,588,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,914 shares in the last quarter. Arjuna Capital grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $731,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on V. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays boosted their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $293.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $534.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $281.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $273.97. 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 results 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 return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

About Visa

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.