Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV raised its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,243 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV’s holdings in Visa were worth $617,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Objective Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $210,000. TCTC Holdings LLC boosted its position in Visa by 3.9% during the third quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 29,363 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,073,000 after acquiring an additional 1,113 shares during the last quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC boosted its position in Visa by 144.0% during the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 9,314 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,561,000 after acquiring an additional 5,497 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 3.0% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 59,816 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,446,000 after acquiring an additional 1,739 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 3.2% during the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 44,409 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,210,000 after acquiring an additional 1,384 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $307.87 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $283.95 and a 200-day moving average of $274.67. The firm has a market cap of $561.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $240.97 and a twelve month high of $311.15. 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 (NYSE:V) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.38%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa 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.