MQS Management LLC Cuts Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

MQS Management LLC cut its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 35.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,397 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,338 shares during the quarter. MQS Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $659,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 211.9% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the second quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter valued at $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price target (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Down 0.2 %

Visa stock opened at $309.82 on Wednesday. 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 fifty-two week low of $244.11 and a fifty-two week high of $312.44. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $285.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $275.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $564.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.84, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.38%.

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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.