Cerity Partners LLC Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,112,483 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 16,705 shares during the period. Visa makes up 0.7% of Cerity Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $394,988,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its position in shares of Visa by 14.5% during the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $159,523,000 after buying an additional 57,800 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Visa by 7.5% during the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $564,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 5.9% during the second quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 95,150 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $33,783,000 after acquiring an additional 5,295 shares in the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $862,000. Finally, Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $22,040,000 after purchasing an additional 3,484 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,608,789.09. This trade represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the sale, the director owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of V stock opened at $330.92 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $338.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $346.02. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $299.00 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $602.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.82.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The company’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 26.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Citigroup raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $400.00.

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.