Means Investment CO. Inc. Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Means Investment CO. Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 24,420 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 0.8% of Means Investment CO. Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Means Investment CO. Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,410,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $39,685,966,000 after acquiring an additional 788,908 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,578,025,000 after purchasing an additional 626,618 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,264,508,000 after purchasing an additional 968,008 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,895,015,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,078,408,000 after buying an additional 85,123 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:V traded down $0.91 during trading on Monday, reaching $266.47. The stock had a trading volume of 6,555,379 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,223,632. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $266.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $273.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $227.78 and a one year high of $290.96. The company has a market capitalization of $487.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.84, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.16 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $297.00 price target (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.25.

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.