S&CO Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

S&CO Inc. boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 26.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 3,289 shares during the period. S&CO Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,305,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in Visa by 970.0% during the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 211.9% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 52.9% during the first quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on V shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $309.64 on Friday. 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 twelve month low of $245.60 and a twelve month high of $312.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $287.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $275.95. The stock has a market cap of $564.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.