Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Purchases 2,250 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 72,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $19,920,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,212,000. Absolute Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter valued at $404,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,761,000 after buying an additional 1,914 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arjuna Capital raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $290.16 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $232.99 and a 52-week high of $295.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $530.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $280.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $273.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen upped their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $320.07.

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.