Mechanics Bank Trust Department Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Mechanics Bank Trust Department boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,859 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 1,013 shares during the period. Visa comprises 1.4% of Mechanics Bank Trust Department's holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Mechanics Bank Trust Department's holdings in Visa were worth $10,701,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 21,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,699,000 after acquiring an additional 582 shares in the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 20.7% during the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 821,886 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $215,720,000 after purchasing an additional 141,036 shares in the last quarter. Tremblant Capital Group increased its stake in Visa by 41.8% during the 2nd quarter. Tremblant Capital Group now owns 6,542 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,930 shares in the last quarter. Samlyn Capital LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,413,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in Visa by 927.4% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 890,739 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $233,792,000 after purchasing an additional 804,039 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.2 %

Visa stock traded down $0.81 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $322.82. 2,401,058 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,484,071. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $325.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $601.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.17, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $313.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $289.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa's revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $332.81.

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.