Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Sells 3,493 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA trimmed its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 75,357 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,493 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 3.0% of Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Visa were worth $26,756,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. OneAscent Family Office LLC raised its stake in Visa by 4.9% during the second quarter. OneAscent Family Office LLC now owns 2,058 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $731,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Twin Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Twin Capital Management Inc. now owns 31,199 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,077,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,745 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135 shares in the last quarter. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 13.1% during the second quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,696 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $602,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Down 0.3%

V stock opened at $335.91 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $615.66 billion, a PE ratio of 32.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $343.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $348.62. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $299.00 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. 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 (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results 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. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.11%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 price target (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.00.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director directly owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This trade represents a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 23,897 shares of company stock worth $8,164,561 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.