Freedom Investment Management Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,115 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 562 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,231,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital Counsel LLC NY increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Counsel LLC NY now owns 813,630 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $223,707,000 after purchasing an additional 5,607 shares in the last quarter. Hardy Reed LLC raised its position in Visa by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hardy Reed LLC now owns 13,936 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,832,000 after buying an additional 536 shares during the last quarter. RBO & Co. LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. RBO & Co. LLC now owns 5,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,455,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 274,132 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $75,373,000 after acquiring an additional 6,446 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cadence Bank grew its stake in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the third quarter. Cadence Bank now owns 18,026 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,956,000 after acquiring an additional 425 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays increased their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of V opened at $311.82 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $290.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $277.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $580.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $251.61 and a 12-month high of $314.50.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. 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 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

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.