Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 21,115 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 377 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 1.7% of FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 5.5% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 148,785 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $39,052,000 after purchasing an additional 7,807 shares during the last quarter. Merriman Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Merriman Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,524 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $400,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC increased its position in Visa by 2.0% during the second quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC now owns 5,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,426,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.9% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 468,804 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $123,047,000 after acquiring an additional 22,009 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 21,918.0% in the second quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 28,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,397,000 after acquiring an additional 28,055 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $319.97 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $321.61. The firm has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $313.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $288.59.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

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.