Smith Group Asset Management LLC Boosts Position in Visa Inc. $V

Smith Group Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 73.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,018 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,703 shares during the quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,427,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 82.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa 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 in the company, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of V opened at $347.34 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $280.78 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $344.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $347.87. The stock has a market cap of $636.60 billion, a PE ratio of 33.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.05%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $392.75.

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.