Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Has $50.95 Million Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 143,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 996 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 4.1% of Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $50,951,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its stake in Visa by 14.5% during the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares during the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Visa by 7.5% during the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $564,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the period. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the second quarter valued at about $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 5.9% during the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.2% in the first 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 own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.4%

V stock opened at $347.34 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $280.78 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $344.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $347.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $636.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Erste Group Bank downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $415.00 price objective (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $392.75.

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.