Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Has $287,000 Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. cut its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,045 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 73 shares during the quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $287,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $39,685,966,000 after acquiring an additional 788,908 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,578,025,000 after acquiring an additional 626,618 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Visa by 5.4% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,264,508,000 after acquiring an additional 968,008 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,833,981,000 after acquiring an additional 345,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after acquiring an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $291.85 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $240.97 and a 52-week high of $296.34. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $281.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $273.80. The company has a market capitalization of $531.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.99, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.38%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

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.