Creative Planning Acquires 17,096 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Creative Planning grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 654,325 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 17,096 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in Visa were worth $232,318,000 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 the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 419.7% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 48,758 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $17,312,000 after acquiring an additional 64,008 shares during the last quarter. Cooper Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth approximately $6,353,000. Truepoint Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.1% during the second quarter. Truepoint Inc. now owns 2,050 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $728,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 7.2% during the second quarter. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,095 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $389,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.2% in the second quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 25,918 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $9,202,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $329.89 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $604.63 billion, a PE ratio of 32.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $342.16 and a 200-day moving average of $348.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $299.00 and a one year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,117. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 23,897 shares of company stock worth $8,164,561 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Erste Group Bank downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 target price on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

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.