Benjamin Edwards Inc. Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,236 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,112,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Alaethes Wealth LLC lifted its position in Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 8,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc now owns 5,051 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,410,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,519 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $424,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,793 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,012,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $571,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $310.22.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $284.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market cap of $518.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $270.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $273.49. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $227.78 and a 1-year high of $293.07.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.16 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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.