Meridian Financial Partners LLC Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Meridian Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 8,347 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 187 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 1.2% of Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,295,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. TruNorth Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 211.9% during the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $290.62 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $228.03 and a 12-month high of $293.07. The company has a market cap of $531.53 billion, a PE ratio of 32.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $276.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $272.91. 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 (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.16 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, September 27th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $318.00 target price on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $314.19.

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.