Hartford Investment Management Co. Boosts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Hartford Investment Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 105,062 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,250 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 1.0% of Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $28,887,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Key Client Fiduciary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Key Client Fiduciary Advisors LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $326,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Bowman & Co S.C. boosted its stake in Visa by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Bowman & Co S.C. now owns 4,696 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,312,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC now owns 5,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,500,000 after buying an additional 646 shares during the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 44.1% in the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 2,990 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $834,000 after buying an additional 915 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clarity Financial LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Clarity Financial LLC now owns 39,255 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,955,000 after buying an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’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 value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $283.76 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $228.03 and a 52-week high of $293.07. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $278.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.10. The company has a market capitalization of $517.10 billion, a PE ratio of 30.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.16 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on V. Citigroup decreased their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Visa from $322.00 to $319.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $314.19.

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.