Visa Inc. $V Stock Position Trimmed by Middleton & Co. Inc. MA

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA trimmed its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 75,357 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,493 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 3.0% of Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Visa were worth $26,756,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 grew its stake in shares of Visa by 17.7% during 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 buying an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in shares of 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 worth $5,003,569,000 after buying an additional 955,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the general counsel directly 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 23,897 shares of company stock valued at $8,164,561 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.3%

NYSE V opened at $335.91 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $299.00 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $343.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $348.62. The stock has a market cap of $615.66 billion, a PE ratio of 32.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.87.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.11%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. Macquarie lowered their price target on Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. UBS Group set a $425.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.00.

About Visa

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.