Cerity Partners LLC Buys 16,705 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,112,483 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,705 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 0.7% of Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Cerity Partners LLC owned 0.06% of Visa worth $394,988,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Visa Trading Up 1.2%

NYSE V opened at $330.92 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $338.75 and its 200-day moving average is $346.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $602.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.41, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.82. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $299.00 and a one year high of $375.51.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Macquarie decreased their price target on Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,117. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Company 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.