Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Cuts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 22.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,876 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 4,868 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,640,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Heritage Investors Management Corp increased its stake in shares of Visa by 3.1% during the third quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp now owns 42,370 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,650,000 after buying an additional 1,271 shares during the period. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 14.0% during the third quarter. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC now owns 9,023 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,504,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares during the period. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 10.1% during the third quarter. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. now owns 907 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $249,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.7% in the third quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 104,878 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,836,000 after purchasing an additional 697 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Management Corp VA boosted its holdings in Visa by 1.7% in the third quarter. Capital Management Corp VA now owns 35,433 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $9,742,000 after purchasing an additional 596 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. BNP Paribas raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price target (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:V opened at $293.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $281.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $273.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $534.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.15, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $240.97 and a 1 year high of $296.34.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.38%.

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.