Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by GS Investments Inc.

GS Investments Inc. lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,379 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 45 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 2.9% of GS Investments Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. GS Investments Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,428,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in V. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.7% during the third quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 2,887 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $794,000 after buying an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Tradewinds LLC. boosted its position in Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 24,470 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,728,000 after acquiring an additional 1,096 shares during the last quarter. German American Bancorp Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. German American Bancorp Inc. now owns 6,276 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,726,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. America First Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. America First Investment Advisors LLC now owns 75,255 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $20,691,000 after acquiring an additional 1,831 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. lifted its stake in Visa by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,267 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,947,000 after purchasing an additional 888 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $307.39 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $560.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.59, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $288.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $276.84. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $250.03 and a twelve month high of $312.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on V. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.