Harrell Investment Partners LLC Acquires 3,279 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Harrell Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 22.4% in Q2, acquiring an additional 3,279 shares, bringing their total to 17,898 shares.
• Several institutional investors have also made significant investments in Visa, with GAMMA Investing LLC growing its stake by 38,416.3% and Nuveen LLC purchasing a new stake valued at approximately $3.5 billion.
• Visa recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59, representing a 0.7% dividend yield, and reported impressive earnings, beating analysts' estimates with $2.98 EPS compared to a consensus of $2.85.

Harrell Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 22.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,898 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 3,279 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 1.6% of Harrell Investment Partners LLC's holdings, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Harrell Investment Partners LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $6,355,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Visa by 38,416.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after acquiring an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Visa by 17.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,847,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at $373,240,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Macquarie increased their target price on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating on the stock. Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Visa Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $335.09 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company has a market cap of $614.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.72, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $344.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $346.22. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $270.00 and a 52-week high of $375.51.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by 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.

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