Sandy Spring Bank Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sandy Spring Bank decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 43,900 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 975 shares during the quarter. Sandy Spring Bank's holdings in Visa were worth $13,874,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $353.96.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

V traded up $8.30 during trading on Monday, hitting $343.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,673,845 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,725,804. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $340.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $313.29. The firm has a market cap of $639.00 billion, a PE ratio of 34.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

About Visa

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.