American Trust Has $5.26 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

American Trust lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,038 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,121 shares during the quarter. American Trust’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,259,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hilltop National Bank acquired a new stake in Visa in the first quarter worth about $1,212,000. Absolute Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth approximately $404,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.5% in the first 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 period. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 4.4% in the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,761,000 after acquiring an additional 1,914 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arjuna Capital grew its holdings in Visa by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Six 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, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.93.

Visa Stock Up 1.0 %

V stock opened at $277.62 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $271.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $273.07. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $227.78 and a 1-year high of $293.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $507.75 billion, a PE ratio of 31.02, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.16 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.24%.

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.