Equitable Trust Co. Raises Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Equitable Trust Co. increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 4.0% during the second quarter, owning 74,750 shares valued at approximately $26.54 million.
• Several institutional investors showed confidence in Visa, with Brighton Jones LLC and Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raising their holdings by 50.1% and 68.9%, respectively, in the last quarter.
• Visa recently reported earnings of $2.98 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding expectations and resulting in a 14.3% increase in year-over-year revenue.

Equitable Trust Co. lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 4.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 74,750 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 2,888 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 1.3% of Equitable Trust Co.'s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Equitable Trust Co.'s holdings in Visa were worth $26,540,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 50.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $6,522,000 after acquiring an additional 6,883 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,733,000 after acquiring an additional 4,817 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 42,120 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $14,761,000 after acquiring an additional 3,795 shares during the period. Good Steward Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $217,000. Finally, Segment Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC now owns 65,833 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $23,072,000 after acquiring an additional 316 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 target price (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Macquarie increased their target price on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One investment 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $389.00.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $341.90 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market cap of $626.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.90. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $280.78 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $344.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $346.83.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Visa

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