Federated Hermes Inc. Increases Position in Visa Inc. $V

Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 663,356 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 20,830 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $235,525,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares during the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 95,150 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $33,783,000 after buying an additional 5,295 shares during the period. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the second quarter valued at about $862,000. Finally, Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 5.9% during the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This trade represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,117. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Trading Up 1.2%

NYSE:V opened at $330.92 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $299.00 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $602.85 billion, a PE ratio of 32.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $338.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $346.02.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 26.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Citigroup upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, UBS Group set a $425.00 price objective on Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

About Visa

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.