Visa Inc. $V Shares Bought by Equitable Trust Co.

Equitable Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 74,750 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,888 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 1.3% of Equitable Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $26,540,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 2.9% during the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 0.8% during the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,209,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,185,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 2.9% during the second quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 11.1% during the first quarter. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC now owns 301 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $105,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Macquarie increased their price target on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $389.00.

Visa Trading Up 1.9%

NYSE:V opened at $341.90 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. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $280.78 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $626.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $344.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $346.83.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the 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 directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.