Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Buys 3,546 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 96,237 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 3,546 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI's holdings in Visa were worth $26,460,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 2.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,833,981,000 after purchasing an additional 345,829 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Visa by 2.2% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after acquiring an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after buying an additional 9,736,958 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 7,867,958 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,065,103,000 after buying an additional 55,437 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Visa by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,670,269 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,013,403,000 after buying an additional 685,228 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Visa from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:V traded up $2.83 during trading on Thursday, hitting $310.22. 2,013,453 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,949,705. The company has a market capitalization of $565.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $288.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $276.84. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $251.61 and a 1-year high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa's revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change 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 yield of 0.76%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company 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.