Gradient Investments LLC Has $21.26 Million Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Gradient Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 18.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 81,007 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 12,404 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $21,262,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Timber Creek Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the second quarter. Timber Creek Capital Management LLC now owns 45,454 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,930,000 after buying an additional 499 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management increased its position in Visa by 27.3% in the 2nd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 34,944 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $9,529,000 after acquiring an additional 7,488 shares in the last quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 54.0% in the second quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 1,889 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $496,000 after acquiring an additional 662 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 132.9% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 13,455 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,755,000 after purchasing an additional 7,679 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Old Port Advisors grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.8% during the second quarter. Old Port Advisors now owns 3,705 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $972,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.25.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded up $0.58 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $267.38. 5,111,080 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,227,860. The stock has a market capitalization of $489.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $266.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $273.59. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $227.78 and a twelve month high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.16 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

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.