American Trust Raises Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

American Trust boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,149 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,111 shares during the quarter. American Trust’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,090,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Verde Capital Management grew its position in Visa by 44.5% in the second quarter. Verde Capital Management now owns 1,947 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $511,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,857,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Winthrop Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Winthrop Advisory Group LLC now owns 9,180 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,409,000 after buying an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. JLB & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 2.0% in the second quarter. JLB & Associates Inc. now owns 10,495 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,755,000 after buying an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hayek Kallen Investment Management grew its position in Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. Hayek Kallen Investment Management now owns 21,763 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,712,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price objective (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.74.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $314.23 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $317.42. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $298.56 and its 200 day moving average is $280.71. The stock has a market cap of $585.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

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.