Ashburton Jersey Ltd Acquires Shares of 54,502 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ashburton Jersey Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 54,502 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $14,347,000. Visa accounts for approximately 6.1% of Ashburton Jersey Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 72.5% during the 2nd quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 18,396 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,829,000 after purchasing an additional 7,734 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.2% in the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 101,450 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,627,000 after acquiring an additional 1,157 shares during the period. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the second quarter worth approximately $721,000. Lazari Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 31.3% in the second quarter. Lazari Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,536 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,453,000 after acquiring an additional 1,319 shares during the period. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the second quarter worth approximately $87,426,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $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 currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $318.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $310.93.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $277.01 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $227.78 and a one year high of $293.07. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $272.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $273.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. 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.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting 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 the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.16 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal 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 $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.