Provident Trust Co. Sells 15,067 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Provident Trust Co. trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,460,344 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 15,067 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 8.0% of Provident Trust Co.'s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Provident Trust Co. owned approximately 0.08% of Visa worth $461,527,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in V. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 45,189.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,683,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,736,958 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $268,640,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $355.31.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V traded down $2.22 during trading on Friday, reaching $348.27. 6,910,504 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,753,988. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $328.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $301.39. The company has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $357.15.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company's 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.