Appleton Partners Inc. MA Decreases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 95,157 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,697 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 1.9% of Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Visa were worth $26,164,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC now owns 9,446 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Visa by 139.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,185,077 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $568,885,000 after acquiring an additional 1,272,211 shares during the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 28.5% during the fourth quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. now owns 544,673 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $141,813,000 after purchasing an additional 120,799 shares during the period. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 96,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $25,037,000 after purchasing an additional 2,916 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,325 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,386,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $277.01 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $227.78 and a 12 month high of $293.07. The company has a market capitalization of $506.63 billion, a PE ratio of 30.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $272.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on V shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Oppenheimer started coverage on Visa in a report on Tuesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $318.00 target price on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.93.

Visa 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.