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

American Trust lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund 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 SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in Visa by 970.0% during the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 211.9% in the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Six investment 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.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $310.93.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Up 1.0 %

Visa stock opened at $277.62 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $271.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $273.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $507.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $227.78 and a 1-year high of $293.07.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.16 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.