Davis R M Inc. Increases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Davis R M Inc. grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 284,030 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 6,566 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.5% of Davis R M Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Davis R M Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $78,094,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 2.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after purchasing an additional 345,829 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Visa by 2.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 6.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,168,096,000 after purchasing an additional 670,590 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 45,189.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 2.1% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,584,713 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,635,317,000 after purchasing an additional 196,891 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $309.92 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $577.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.85, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $289.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $277.34. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $251.61 and a twelve month high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.