Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Hilltop National Bank

Hilltop National Bank reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,052 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 201 shares during the quarter. Hilltop National Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,281,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth about $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $616,000. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 5.2% in the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after acquiring an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC increased its stake in Visa by 5,034.0% during the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,499,000 after acquiring an additional 55,273 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock traded down $4.46 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $308.14. 1,840,974 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,677,757. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $321.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $311.80 and a 200 day moving average of $286.63. The firm has a market cap of $574.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.67, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.85.

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.