Fruth Investment Management Takes $208,000 Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Fruth Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 748 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rainsberger Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Rainsberger Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 4,231 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $973,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the period. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Visa by 2,712.4% during the 3rd quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,151,000 after purchasing an additional 4,828 shares during the period. Cito Capital Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.8% in the third quarter. Cito Capital Group LLC now owns 17,838 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,103,000 after buying an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in Visa by 0.4% during the third quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC now owns 12,887 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,964,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tenere Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 22.4% in the 3rd quarter. Tenere Capital LLC now owns 56,167 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,919,000 after buying an additional 10,280 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on V. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 target price for the company. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.56.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of V stock traded up $0.76 on Thursday, reaching $268.99. 5,017,760 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,395,944. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $491.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $273.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $273.65. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $227.68 and a 1-year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

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.