Cynosure Group LLC Sells 7,234 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Cynosure Group LLC cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 74.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,474 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 7,234 shares during the quarter. Cynosure Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $680,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Arjuna Capital lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $731,000. Mechanics Bank Trust Department boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 32,460 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,520,000 after acquiring an additional 2,410 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after acquiring an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft grew its position in shares of Visa by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft now owns 58,655 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,299,000 after acquiring an additional 4,988 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on V shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 price target (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of V stock opened at $314.65 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $586.15 billion, a PE ratio of 32.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $290.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $278.06. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $251.61 and a 1 year high of $316.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.