Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Grove Bank & Trust

Grove Bank & Trust reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,605 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,783 shares during the quarter. Grove Bank & Trust’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,327,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,711,249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,461,575 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,253,245,000 after buying an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,769,936,000 after buying an additional 2,429,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 7.2% during the 1st 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 buying an additional 955,392 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $345.21 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $337.52 and a 200 day moving average of $344.89. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $299.00 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $628.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The company 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $402.52.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,789.09. This trade represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.12% 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.