Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Provident Trust Co.

Provident Trust Co. reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,460,344 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 15,067 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 8.0% of Provident Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Provident Trust Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $461,527,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Visa by 4.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at about $268,640,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on V shares. Macquarie increased their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.73.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $350.45 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $651.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.33, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $328.47 and a 200-day moving average of $301.39. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $357.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

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.