Ascent Group LLC Cuts Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Ascent Group LLC cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 54,988 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,995 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $18,772,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in V. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Visa by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,348,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Weaver Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 19.4% during the third quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 11,451 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,909,000 after buying an additional 1,863 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Visa by 13.1% during the third quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 70,399 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $24,033,000 after buying an additional 8,165 shares during the last quarter. Clark Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the third quarter. Clark Asset Management LLC now owns 12,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,223,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Finally, YANKCOM Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.4% in the third quarter. YANKCOM Partnership now owns 4,572 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,561,000 after buying an additional 277 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the sale, the director owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This trade represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 13,557 shares of company stock worth $4,586,137 in the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI set a $380.00 target price on Visa in a report on Friday, December 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $402.52.

Visa Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE:V opened at $350.99 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $339.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $343.92. The stock has a market cap of $639.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $299.00 and a 12 month high of $375.51.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

About Visa

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.