Visa Inc. $V Shares Bought by Ancora Advisors LLC

Ancora Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 40,331 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $14,134,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. 1 North Wealth Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth $38,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $47,000. Finally, O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth $54,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $349.86 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $641.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $348.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $347.36. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $268.23 and a 52-week high of $375.51.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,772,810. This represents a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 68,507 shares of company stock valued at $25,213,475 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.