First Merchants Corp Sells 1,760 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

First Merchants Corp lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 61,137 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,760 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $20,871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 50.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,522,000 after acquiring an additional 6,883 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 68.9% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,733,000 after acquiring an additional 4,817 shares during the last quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. lifted its position in Visa by 4.6% in the first quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 10,941 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,834,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LLP bought a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at approximately $632,000. Finally, Mattson Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 26.6% during the first quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC now owns 14,073 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,932,000 after purchasing an additional 2,960 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on V shares. HSBC raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $335.00 to $389.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 7th. Evercore ISI set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, UBS Group set a $425.00 price target on Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Five investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $402.52.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,117. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $830,432.64. This represents a 26.72% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,247,289 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 1.1%

V opened at $352.08 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $299.00 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The stock has a market cap of $641.40 billion, a PE ratio of 34.48, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.81. The business has a 50 day moving average of $339.91 and a 200-day moving average of $344.15.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.