Visa Inc. $V Position Boosted by Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management

Key Points

• Empirical Wealth Management increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 4.3% during Q2, now owning approximately $10.99 million worth of shares.
• Analyst upgrades have raised Visa's target price, with Macquarie lifting it from $380 to $425, reflecting a favorable outlook for the stock.
• Visa's quarterly earnings showed strong performance, reporting $2.98 EPS and $10.17 billion in revenue, exceeding analyst expectations.

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 4.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,963 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 1,271 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management's holdings in Visa were worth $10,993,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 5.7% in the first quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its position in Visa by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $159,523,000 after buying an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after buying an additional 955,392 shares during the period. Finally, Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on V. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $349.90 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $273.24 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The company has a market cap of $641.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.90. The business's 50 day moving average is $343.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.81. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. Visa's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.42 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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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