ASB Consultores LLC Reduces Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

ASB Consultores LLC reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,244 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 172 shares during the period. Visa makes up 0.6% of ASB Consultores LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. ASB Consultores LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,442,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hilltop National Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth about $1,212,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,588,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,914 shares during the last quarter. Arjuna Capital increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $731,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $293.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $281.92 and a 200-day moving average of $273.97. The stock has a market cap of $534.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $240.97 and a 52 week high of $296.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 21.38%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays increased their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Macquarie raised their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.