Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Position Lifted by Parnassus Investments LLC

Parnassus Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,555 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 943 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,627,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $632,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 16.0% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 58,506 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,328,000 after acquiring an additional 8,086 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL boosted its stake in Visa by 68.5% in the first quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL now owns 2,609 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $728,000 after acquiring an additional 1,061 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 346.9% during the first quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 35,730 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $9,972,000 after purchasing an additional 27,735 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $5,260,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s 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 in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $312.16 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $287.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $276.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $568.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.08, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $245.60 and a 52-week high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company 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 $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.