Appleton Partners Inc. MA Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 86,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,402 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 2.4% of Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Visa were worth $30,479,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,171,271,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Visa by 38,416.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $1,955,403,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Visa by 17,018.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on V shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Macquarie decreased their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $372.80.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $2,978,899.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $185,576.46. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 101,098 shares of company stock worth $36,738,526 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE V opened at $338.04 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $351.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $338.74. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $623.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 52.86% and a return on equity of 56.28%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.51 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

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.