Ledyard National Bank Sells 747 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Ledyard National Bank trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,356 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 747 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.6% of Ledyard National Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Ledyard National Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $16,814,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Visa by 17.7% in the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at about $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 7.2% during 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 worth $5,003,569,000 after purchasing an additional 955,392 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on V. Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.00.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $341.07 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $344.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $348.40. The company has a market capitalization of $625.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.90. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $287.19 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The company 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%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.11%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was 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 directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,815.10. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel 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 ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.