Claro Advisors LLC Grows Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Claro Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 42.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,194 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 2,750 shares during the quarter. Claro Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $2,528,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $632,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 58,506 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $16,328,000 after buying an additional 8,086 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $2,499,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,166 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $604,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in Visa by 12.9% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,563 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $437,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $321.00 target price (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock traded up $1.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $309.64. The company had a trading volume of 5,106,284 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,762,525. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $287.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $275.95. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $245.60 and a 52-week high of $312.44. The company has a market capitalization of $564.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion for 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%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. Equities research 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 paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. Visa's payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible 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.