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

HTLF Bank lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 506 shares during the period. HTLF Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,810,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $24,475,000 after buying an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of V opened at $350.88 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $321.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of $296.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $651.85 billion, a PE ratio of 35.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $352.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

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.