Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by First Merchants Corp

First Merchants Corp trimmed its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 66,027 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 819 shares during the period. Visa comprises 0.8% of First Merchants Corp's holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. First Merchants Corp's holdings in Visa were worth $20,867,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Creative Planning grew its holdings in Visa by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 566,729 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $155,822,000 after purchasing an additional 13,318 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in Visa by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $566,153,000 after purchasing an additional 199,440 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. West Oak Capital LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. West Oak Capital LLC now owns 1,970 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $542,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Riverview Trust Co grew its stake in Visa by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 2,078 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $571,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $354.73.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded down $1.78 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $354.95. The company had a trading volume of 4,151,579 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,719,613. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $327.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $301.05. The stock has a market cap of $659.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $357.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.