Sterling Investment Counsel LLC Buys 731 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sterling Investment Counsel LLC boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,038 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.2% of Sterling Investment Counsel LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,310,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Key Client Fiduciary Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Key Client Fiduciary Advisors LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Bowman & Co S.C. lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.7% during the first quarter. Bowman & Co S.C. now owns 4,696 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,312,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC grew its stake in Visa by 13.7% in the first quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC now owns 5,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,500,000 after acquiring an additional 646 shares during the period. DGS Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 44.1% in the first quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 2,990 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $834,000 after acquiring an additional 915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clarity Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the first quarter. Clarity Financial LLC now owns 39,255 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,955,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several research analyst reports. William Blair upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, September 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $314.19.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

Visa stock opened at $283.76 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $278.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $273.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $517.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.35, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $228.03 and a 52 week high of $293.07.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.16 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa 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 owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.