Advisors Asset Management Inc. Grows Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 2.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 224,515 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 5,969 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 1.1% of Advisors Asset Management Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Advisors Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $61,730,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Unionview LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.5% in the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $631,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC grew its stake in Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $900,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 0.3% in the third quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,831,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 15.9% during the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on V. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America lifted 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. Finally, Macquarie increased their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Down 1.4 %

V traded down $4.46 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $307.39. The company had a trading volume of 6,349,576 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,971,641. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $250.03 and a 52 week high of $312.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $560.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.74, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $288.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $276.63.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. 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 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value 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 represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.19% of the company's stock.

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.