Parnassus Investments LLC Purchases 943 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,555 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 943 shares during the quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,627,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in Visa by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 16.0% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 58,506 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,328,000 after acquiring an additional 8,086 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 68.5% in the 1st quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL now owns 2,609 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $728,000 after buying an additional 1,061 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 346.9% during the first quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 35,730 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $9,972,000 after acquiring an additional 27,735 shares during the period. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at about $5,260,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of V stock opened at $312.16 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $245.60 and a 12-month high of $312.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $287.57 and a 200-day moving average of $276.32. The company has a market capitalization of $568.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its 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 firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict 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 given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on V shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research 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 data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

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.