Central Bank & Trust Co. Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Central Bank & Trust Co. cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,114 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 141 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 1.6% of Central Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Central Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $11,304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth about $1,212,000. Davidson Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Davidson Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,275 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,588,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 4.4% in the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 45,724 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,914 shares during the last quarter. Arjuna Capital grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after buying an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $293.36 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $240.97 and a one year high of $296.34. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $281.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $273.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The company has a market capitalization of $534.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.