Meridian Management Co. Has $4.40 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Meridian Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.1% of Meridian Management Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Meridian Management Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,401,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Arjuna Capital increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $731,000. Mechanics Bank Trust Department lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 8.0% during the second quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 32,460 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,520,000 after buying an additional 2,410 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 46.9% in the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 50,328 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,046,000 after acquiring an additional 16,078 shares during the period. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 5.2% in the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after acquiring an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Macquarie upped their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price target (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Up 1.0 %

NYSE V opened at $310.98 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $284.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $274.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $244.11 and a one year high of $312.44. The firm has a market cap of $566.70 billion, a PE ratio of 31.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.95.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.38%.

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.