Westside Investment Management Inc. Acquires 305 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 37.5% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 305 shares during the quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $397,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Visa by 4.0% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,654,189,000 after acquiring an additional 726,299 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 7.2% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after acquiring an additional 955,392 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 3.5% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,442,157,000 after acquiring an additional 434,217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Visa by 17.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,847,953,000 after acquiring an additional 1,651,954 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,117. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 22,997 shares of company stock worth $7,861,729 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $400.00.

Visa Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $340.00 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a 50-day moving average of $344.31 and a 200 day moving average of $348.65. The firm has a market cap of $623.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.30, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.87. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $291.58 and a 1 year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. 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. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.11%.

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.