Eastover Investment Advisors LLC Sells 1,474 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Eastover Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,808 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,474 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 2.9% of Eastover Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. Eastover Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,762,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Visa by 14.6% in the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,769,936,000 after acquiring an additional 2,429,996 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 110.4% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,954,937 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,396,930,000 after acquiring an additional 2,075,289 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 0.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $57,711,249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,461,575 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of V stock opened at $344.33 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $299.00 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $627.28 billion, a PE ratio of 33.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $337.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $344.89.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on V shares. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Erste Group Bank lowered Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price target on Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Macquarie dropped their price target on Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $402.52.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $8,608,789.09. This trade represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.