Empirical Finance LLC Acquires 401 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 44,891 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 401 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 0.8% of Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $15,939,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Semus Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,209,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,185,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Valued Retirements Inc. grew its position in Visa by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Valued Retirements Inc. now owns 728 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $255,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Interchange Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,413 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,276,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 1.5%

NYSE:V opened at $320.78 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $341.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $348.40. The stock has a market cap of $584.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $299.00 and a 12 month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on V. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,117. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,870 shares of company stock valued at $7,467,233. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.