First County Bank CT Lowers Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

First County Bank CT lowered its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 15.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,763 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 693 shares during the period. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Visa were worth $988,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of V. Scientech Research LLC increased its stake in Visa by 35.5% in the 2nd quarter. Scientech Research LLC now owns 4,907 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,288,000 after acquiring an additional 1,285 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares in the last quarter. Makena Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.7% in the second quarter. Makena Capital Management LLC now owns 61,525 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020 shares during the last quarter. Marshfield Associates raised its stake in Visa by 0.3% in the second quarter. Marshfield Associates now owns 925,954 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $243,035,000 after purchasing an additional 2,825 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Matrix Private Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Visa by 2.3% during the second quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC now owns 2,244 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $589,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on V shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Citigroup dropped their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.22.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $271.69 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $271.12 and a 200 day moving average of $273.39. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $227.78 and a 52 week high of $293.07. The company has a market cap of $496.90 billion, a PE ratio of 30.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96. 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 (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.16 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.