Greenwood Gearhart Inc. Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Greenwood Gearhart Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 2.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 49,101 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 1,165 shares during the period. Greenwood Gearhart Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $17,433,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 82.0% in the second quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, 1 North Wealth Services LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the first quarter worth $38,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $389.00.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $348.39 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $278.35 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The stock has a market cap of $638.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.02, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a fifty day moving average of $344.01 and a 200 day moving average of $346.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.42 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Company 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.

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