Mechanics Bank Trust Department Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Mechanics Bank Trust Department grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 32,846 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 1.2% of Mechanics Bank Trust Department’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Mechanics Bank Trust Department’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,031,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,212,000. Absolute Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the first quarter worth $404,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 0.5% in the first quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in Visa by 4.4% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,914 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arjuna Capital lifted its stake in Visa by 0.8% during the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $277.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $228.03 and a 1 year high of $293.07. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $274.16 and a 200 day moving average of $272.66. The company has a market cap of $508.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.04, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.16 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on V. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $322.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $312.04.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company 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.