Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD trimmed its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.3% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,880 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 514 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 1.4% of Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,091,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $39,685,966,000 after buying an additional 788,908 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.7% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,578,025,000 after purchasing an additional 626,618 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 968,008 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after purchasing an additional 345,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Visa by 2.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price objective (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Compass Point initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $320.70.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other 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 transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE V opened at $290.74 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $529.82 billion, a PE ratio of 29.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $281.00 and its 200 day moving average is $273.63. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $239.20 and a twelve month high of $296.34.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.38%.

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.