Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Acquires 6,710 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 221,222 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 6,710 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 1.7% of Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $69,913,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on V. Morgan Stanley boosted 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded up $1.08 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $344.95. The company had a trading volume of 3,930,720 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,725,137. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $640.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $341.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $313.75.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. 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.