Visa Inc. $V Stake Lifted by Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc.

Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,831 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 452 shares during the period. Visa comprises 2.1% of Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $12,367,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund raised its stake in Visa by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $159,523,000 after acquiring an additional 57,800 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 7.5% in the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the second quarter valued at approximately $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc boosted its holdings in Visa by 43.8% in the 2nd quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,212,000 after buying an additional 13,912 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on V. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 target price on Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group set a $425.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $340.93 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $287.19 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company has a market cap of $624.86 billion, a PE ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $344.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $348.30.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.20%. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

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.