Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Ameritas Advisory Services LLC

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 22.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,876 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 4,868 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $4,640,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Heritage Investors Management Corp grew its stake in Visa by 3.1% in the third quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp now owns 42,370 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $11,650,000 after purchasing an additional 1,271 shares in the last quarter. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC now owns 9,023 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,504,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares in the last quarter. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 10.1% during the third quarter. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. now owns 907 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $249,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the third quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 104,878 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $28,836,000 after acquiring an additional 697 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Management Corp VA lifted its stake in Visa by 1.7% in the third quarter. Capital Management Corp VA now owns 35,433 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $9,742,000 after acquiring an additional 596 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now 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 through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. 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's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

V stock traded up $11.95 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $305.24. The stock had a trading volume of 3,227,582 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,022,505. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $240.97 and a 52-week high of $309.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $281.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $273.97. The company has a market cap of $556.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. 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 earned $2.33 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.