Appleton Partners Inc. MA Has $30.01 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Appleton Partners Inc. MA reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 2.8% during the second quarter, now owning 84,510 shares valued at approximately $30 million.
• Institutions hold approximately 82.15% of Visa's stock, with significant changes from major investors like Nuveen LLC and Vanguard Group.
• Visa reported a 14.3% increase in quarterly revenue year-over-year, totaling $10.17 billion, and exceeded earnings estimates with $2.98 earnings per share.

Appleton Partners Inc. MA lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 2.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 84,510 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 2,459 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 2.1% of Appleton Partners Inc. MA's portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Appleton Partners Inc. MA's holdings in Visa were worth $30,005,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Visa by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,847,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares during the last quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after purchasing an additional 955,392 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on V shares. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $389.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.3%

V opened at $351.31 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $274.42 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company has a fifty day moving average of $343.66 and a 200-day moving average of $346.96. The stock has a market cap of $643.88 billion, a PE ratio of 34.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.90.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 earnings per share. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is 23.05%.

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.

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