Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 370.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,018,323 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 801,725 shares during the period. Visa makes up 0.5% of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned about 0.06% of Visa worth $279,988,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of V. Arjuna Capital grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the 2nd 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. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at $731,000. Mechanics Bank Trust Department boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 32,460 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $8,520,000 after purchasing an additional 2,410 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased its position in shares of Visa by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft now owns 58,655 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $15,299,000 after purchasing an additional 4,988 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE V traded up $1.39 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $309.64. The stock had a trading volume of 5,106,284 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,762,525. The company's 50 day moving average price is $287.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $275.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $245.60 and a twelve month high of $312.44. The firm has a market cap of $564.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its 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. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm's revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. This is an increase from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa's payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Four investment 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 presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $321.74.

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.