Washington Trust Bank Cuts Position in Visa Inc. $V

Washington Trust Bank reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 11.5% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,173 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 412 shares during the period. Washington Trust Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,127,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.0% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,654,189,000 after purchasing an additional 726,299 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 3.5% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,442,157,000 after buying an additional 434,217 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Visa by 17.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,117. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This trade represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 23,897 shares of company stock worth $8,164,561 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $336.63 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $299.00 and a one year high of $375.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $343.84 and its 200-day moving average is $348.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $616.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 target price on Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Visa 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.