Balentine LLC Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Balentine LLC lifted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 75.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,887 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 813 shares during the quarter. Balentine LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $670,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. increased its position in Visa by 2.9% during the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Visa by 0.8% during the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,209,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,185,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC increased its position in Visa by 2.9% during the second quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC increased its position in Visa by 11.1% during the first quarter. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC now owns 301 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $105,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group set a $425.00 price objective on Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Macquarie cut their price target on Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Erste Group Bank lowered Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $341.07 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $344.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $348.52. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $287.19 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $625.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.11%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa 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.