NorthRock Partners LLC Cuts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

NorthRock Partners LLC reduced its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 22.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 12,828 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,678 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,527,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $39,685,966,000 after acquiring an additional 788,908 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,578,025,000 after purchasing an additional 626,618 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Visa by 5.4% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,264,508,000 after purchasing an additional 968,008 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Visa by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after buying an additional 312,286 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $293.36 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $281.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $273.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $534.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.15, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $240.97 and a twelve month high of $296.34.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 21.38%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie upped their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

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.