Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp Acquires 14,561 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 254,666 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 14,561 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 1.0% of Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $70,021,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Arjuna Capital boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $731,000. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 5.2% in the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 5,034.0% in the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,499,000 after purchasing an additional 55,273 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $314.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $585.37 billion, a PE ratio of 32.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $298.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $280.71. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $317.42.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on V. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.74.

Visa Company 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.