Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s 9th Largest Position

Appleton Partners Inc. MA trimmed its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 89,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 5,786 shares during the period. Visa makes up 2.1% of Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Visa were worth $28,245,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Montis Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $374,000. Mechanics Bank Trust Department lifted its stake in Visa by 1.2% in the third quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 32,846 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $9,031,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 15.3% in the third quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 151,319 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $41,605,000 after acquiring an additional 20,109 shares in the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel boosted its holdings in Visa by 7.4% in the third quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 103,481 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,452,000 after acquiring an additional 7,106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA increased its position in Visa by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 20,496 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,635,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $348.26 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $351.25. The company has a market cap of $647.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $321.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $295.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued 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 $354.73.

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.