Wedmont Private Capital Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wedmont Private Capital increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 16,572 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,028 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,404,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $39,685,966,000 after buying an additional 788,908 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted 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 acquiring an additional 626,618 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 968,008 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $3,895,015,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,078,408,000 after purchasing an additional 85,123 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock traded up $0.96 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $260.85. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,176,865 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,187,822. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a market cap of $475.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.03, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $227.78 and a 1-year high of $290.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $267.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.83.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.16 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $322.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.25.

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.