West Family Investments Inc. Acquires 1,023 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

West Family Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,809 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,023 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,597,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 970.0% during the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 211.9% in the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target on the stock. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $312.16 on Tuesday. 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 cap of $568.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $287.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $276.32. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $245.60 and a 12 month high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, 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 declared 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. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

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.