Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 338 shares during the period. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,803,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Arjuna Capital grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. Mechanics Bank Trust Department increased its stake in Visa by 8.0% in the second quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 32,460 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,520,000 after purchasing an additional 2,410 shares during the period. Chicago Capital LLC increased its stake in Visa by 5.2% in the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $7,987,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.1 %

V stock opened at $315.08 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $292.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $278.57. The company has a market capitalization of $586.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.14 and a 52 week high of $316.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released 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 return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 target price (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa 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.