Empirical Finance LLC Has $12.06 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Empirical Finance LLC grew its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 43,867 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,594 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 0.7% of Empirical Finance LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $12,061,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in Visa by 970.0% during the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 211.9% in the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 52.9% during the 1st quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price for the company. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 target price (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of V opened at $307.36 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $285.84 and its 200-day moving average is $275.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $560.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $245.60 and a 12 month high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.