Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Provident Trust Co.

Provident Trust Co. lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,430,436 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 13,825 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 9.3% of Provident Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Provident Trust Co. owned approximately 0.08% of Visa worth $507,876,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Visa by 17.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,847,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 7.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after purchasing an additional 955,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Citigroup raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up previously from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $341.07 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $625.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $287.19 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $344.78 and a 200-day moving average of $348.40.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.11%.

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.