Benjamin Edwards Inc. Acquires 68,654 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1,620.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 72,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 68,654 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $20,046,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC grew its stake in Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after acquiring an additional 345,829 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,188,862,000 after purchasing an additional 123,927 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,168,096,000 after purchasing an additional 670,590 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on V. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note 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 report on Monday, November 4th. 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 report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $315.08 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $292.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $278.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $586.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.14 and a fifty-two week high of $316.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. 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 (DPR) is 24.25%.

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.