Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Acquires 1,957 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 32.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,020 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,957 shares during the period. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,848,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Semus Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,209,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,185,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Transcendent Capital Group LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 1,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valued Retirements Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Valued Retirements Inc. now owns 728 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Macquarie lowered their target price on Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $400.00.

Visa Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE V opened at $338.67 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $299.00 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $342.94 and a 200-day moving average of $348.85. The company has a market cap of $620.72 billion, a PE ratio of 33.17, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.87.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the sale, the director owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at $830,432.64. This represents a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 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 transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 23,897 shares of company stock valued at $8,164,561 over the last 90 days. 0.13% 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.