Argent Trust Co Has $26.70 Million Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Argent Trust Co increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 101,732 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,232 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 1.2% of Argent Trust Co’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest position. Argent Trust Co’s holdings in Visa were worth $26,702,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brio Consultants LLC boosted its position in Visa by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Brio Consultants LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $405,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares during the period. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 5,629 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,466,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $730,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 20.8% in the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,043 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,094,000 after buying an additional 1,387 shares during the period. Finally, Gryphon Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in Visa by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 13,640 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,282,000 after buying an additional 4,774 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Macquarie reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.22.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $291.61 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $227.78 and a 12 month high of $293.07. The company has a market capitalization of $533.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $269.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $273.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.16 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

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.