Parnassus Investments LLC Purchases 8,061 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Parnassus Investments LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 274,141 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,061 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $93,586,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its position in Visa by 2.9% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 519,206 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $177,247,000 after purchasing an additional 14,452 shares in the last quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors grew its stake in Visa by 2.4% in the third quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 7,673 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,619,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Narwhal Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Visa by 19.2% in the third quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 59,895 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $20,447,000 after buying an additional 9,649 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 5.0% in the third quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,433 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,537,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trueblood Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,073 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,732,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. HSBC upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $335.00 to $389.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $402.52.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total value of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,282,641.18. The trade was a 52.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. The trade was a 7.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,247,289 in the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $349.75 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $637.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.26, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.81. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $340.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $344.13. 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 1-year low of $299.00 and a 1-year high of $375.51.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Visa Company Profile

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.