Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 319,909 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 18,476 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $87,959,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 970.0% in the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 211.9% during the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 price target (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.41.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $308.30 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $296.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $279.98. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $317.42. The company has a market cap of $574.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.69, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

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.