Sargent Investment Group LLC Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sargent Investment Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 61.6% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,121 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,190 shares during the period. Sargent Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $819,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Brio Consultants LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 39.1% in the 4th quarter. Brio Consultants LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $405,000 after buying an additional 437 shares during the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 5,629 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,466,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $730,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,043 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gryphon Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 13,640 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,282,000 after buying an additional 4,774 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. William Blair raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $322.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $297.00 target price (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Compass Point initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price for the company. Finally, Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $309.81.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $290.52 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $227.78 and a 12 month high of $290.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $529.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $268.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $273.21.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.16 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.