Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Cuts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 333,736 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 256 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.8% of Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $91,761,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Visa by 970.0% during the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 211.9% in the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price objective (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BNP Paribas raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V traded down $0.31 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $309.17. 77,704 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,983,501. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $285.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $275.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $245.34 and a one year high of $312.44. The firm has a market cap of $563.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.