Essex Financial Services Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Essex Financial Services Inc. increased its stock holdings in Visa Inc. by 6.1% during the second quarter, now owning 25,289 shares valued at approximately $8.98 million.
• Visa reported a quarterly EPS of $2.98, exceeding estimates of $2.85, with revenues of $10.17 billion compared to expectations of $9.82 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 23.05%.

Essex Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 6.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,289 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 1,465 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $8,979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 82.0% in the second quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1 North Wealth Services LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at $38,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE:V opened at $337.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $272.78 and a one year high of $375.51. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $344.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $346.26. The stock has a market cap of $617.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on V. Raymond James Financial restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Macquarie boosted their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.96.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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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