Perennial Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Perennial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 38,377 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 584 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 2.3% of Perennial Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Perennial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $10,073,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 15.4% in the 4th quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 17,671 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,601,000 after acquiring an additional 2,362 shares during the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its stake in Visa by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 74,167 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $19,309,000 after buying an additional 344 shares during the last quarter. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC now owns 19,614 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,119,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. CNB Bank grew its stake in Visa by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. CNB Bank now owns 8,485 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,209,000 after buying an additional 568 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vantage Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in Visa by 45.3% during the 4th quarter. Vantage Investment Partners LLC now owns 30,044 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,822,000 after buying an additional 9,366 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

V stock traded down $0.97 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $267.23. 1,388,345 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,181,417. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $266.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $273.40. The stock has a market cap of $488.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.93, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $227.78 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. Visa’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.16 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group raised their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $308.50.

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.