Busey Bank Sells 579 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Busey Bank reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,462 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 579 shares during the period. Busey Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,887,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,847,000 after buying an additional 4,198 shares during the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at about $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after buying an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $342.05 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $351.25. The company has a fifty day moving average of $317.74 and a 200-day moving average of $292.96. The company has a market capitalization of $637.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on V. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup upped their price target on Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.27.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade 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.

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.