L & S Advisors Inc Trims Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

L & S Advisors Inc cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 94.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 920 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 14,597 shares during the period. L & S Advisors Inc's holdings in Visa were worth $253,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 970.0% in the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 211.9% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 52.9% in the first quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $321.00 price objective (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE V traded down $1.13 on Friday, hitting $308.77. 3,205,435 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,949,703. 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 company has a market cap of $562.67 billion, a PE ratio of 31.84, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $289.07 and a 200-day moving average of $277.08. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $251.61 and a 12 month high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. This is an increase from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Visa Company 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.