Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc.

Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 20.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,668 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,221 shares during the period. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $1,475,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $23,847,000 after acquiring an additional 4,198 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $332.81.

Visa Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of Visa stock traded down $0.09 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $323.55. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,010,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,689,813. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $313.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $289.47. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $325.74. The company has a market cap of $602.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

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.