Farmers Trust Co. Sells 1,996 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Farmers Trust Co. lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 19,572 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,996 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.2% of Farmers Trust Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Farmers Trust Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,681,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of V. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,711,249,000 after acquiring an additional 1,461,575 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. raised its position in Visa by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,769,936,000 after purchasing an additional 2,429,996 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Visa by 4.0% in the 1st 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on V shares. Evercore ISI set a $380.00 target price on Visa in a research report on Friday. Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. HSBC upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $335.00 to $389.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $402.52.

Visa Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:V opened at $347.15 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $632.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.00, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.82. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $299.00 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $337.65 and a 200 day moving average of $345.04.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,789.09. This trade represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. This represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152 in the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.