Stephens Consulting LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Stephens Consulting LLC lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 87.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 454 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 212 shares during the quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $119,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth about $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 970.0% during the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 211.9% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on V. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $308.50.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $276.37 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $265.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $273.12. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $227.78 and a 1-year high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market cap of $505.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

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.