CoreFirst Bank & Trust Acquires Shares of 2,070 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 2,070 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $654,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC lifted its position in Visa by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $724,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. increased its holdings in Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. now owns 7,283 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 2.5 %

NYSE:V opened at $343.96 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $341.23 and a 200-day moving average of $313.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $639.00 billion, a PE ratio of 34.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Barclays increased their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.