W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,249 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 153 shares during the quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,168,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $632,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Visa by 46.9% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 50,328 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $14,046,000 after acquiring an additional 16,078 shares during the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth about $5,681,000. Liberty Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at about $5,333,000. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 6.5% during the first quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 7,557 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,109,000 after buying an additional 460 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.5 %

V stock opened at $293.36 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $281.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.97. The company has a market capitalization of $534.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $240.97 and a 52 week high of $296.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.38%.

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.