Benjamin Edwards Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 32.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 106,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,800 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $36,349,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new position in Visa during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the second quarter worth $29,000. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth $31,000. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 82.0% during the second quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Bare Financial Services Inc boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 287.0% during the second quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 89 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $349.75 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $637.15 billion, a PE ratio of 34.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.81. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $340.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $344.19. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $299.00 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion during 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 quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total transaction of $3,661,152.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,282,641.18. This represents a 52.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,247,289. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Bank of America raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, HSBC upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $335.00 to $389.00 in a report on Sunday, December 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $402.52.

Visa Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.