American Trust Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

American Trust lessened its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 17.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 16,637 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,561 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.4% of American Trust’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. American Trust’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,831,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Visa by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,654,189,000 after purchasing an additional 726,299 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Visa by 38,416.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Visa by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,210,207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,442,157,000 after purchasing an additional 434,217 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Citigroup started coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.96.

Visa Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of V opened at $342.45 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $627.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.44, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $268.23 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $348.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $347.15.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,293 shares of company stock worth $8,114,295. 0.13% of the stock is 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.