First Business Financial Services Inc. Reduces Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

First Business Financial Services Inc. reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 15.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,200 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 215 shares during the period. First Business Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 45,189.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Visa by 4,412.3% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,119,725,000 after buying an additional 4,166,905 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Visa by 787.1% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,296,820,000 after acquiring an additional 4,099,122 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $511,321,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 40.1% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,671,866,000 after acquiring an additional 1,715,686 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

V opened at $308.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $561.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50 day moving average is $285.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $275.41. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $245.34 and a 52 week high of $312.44.

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 firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on V. 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. Barclays boosted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho raised their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Compass Point initiated coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Four investment 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.