Gradient Investments LLC Buys 12,404 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Gradient Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 18.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 81,007 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,404 shares during the quarter. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $21,262,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,895,015,000. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in Visa by 787.1% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,296,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,099,122 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Visa in the first quarter worth $511,321,000. GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in Visa by 40.1% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,671,866,000 after purchasing an additional 1,715,686 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its position in shares of Visa by 14,306.3% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,500,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $390,595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,856 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $307.25.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V traded up $0.58 on Friday, hitting $267.38. The stock had a trading volume of 5,111,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,227,860. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $266.41 and a 200-day moving average of $273.59. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $227.78 and a 52-week high of $290.96. The company has a market capitalization of $489.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

About Visa

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.