Equitable Trust Co. Lowers Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Equitable Trust Co. lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 66,799 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.2% of Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $21,111,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Riverstone Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.6% in 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. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays increased their price objective 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. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $351.43 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $352.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $652.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.43, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $322.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $297.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

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.