Essex Savings Bank Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Essex Savings Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,429 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.1% of Essex Savings Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Essex Savings Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,242,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the third quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 15.9% in the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Washington Trust Bank raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. Washington Trust Bank now owns 3,258 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $896,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Tlwm raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the second quarter. Tlwm now owns 5,241 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,376,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, Meridian Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.5% in the second quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC now owns 8,160 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,196,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Up 0.7 %

NYSE:V opened at $307.87 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $240.97 and a fifty-two week high of $311.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $561.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $283.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $274.67.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.38%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Profile

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.