Visa Inc. $V is Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ 8th Largest Position

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,453,790 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 91,305 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 1.1% of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned approximately 0.08% of Visa worth $515,906,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.8% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,241,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $438,196,000 after buying an additional 21,401 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 5.9% in the second quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 95,150 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $33,783,000 after acquiring an additional 5,295 shares in the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $862,000. Finally, Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 3,484 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $347.83 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $299.00 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $337.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $345.14. The stock has a market cap of $633.65 billion, a PE ratio of 34.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,789.09. This trade represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on V. Macquarie dropped their target price on shares of Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $402.52.

Visa 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.