Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Holdings Lessened by Provident Trust Co.

Provident Trust Co. cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,460,344 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 15,067 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 8.0% of Provident Trust Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Provident Trust Co. owned 0.08% of Visa worth $461,527,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie boosted their target price 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. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $350.45 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $651.05 billion, a PE ratio of 35.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.97. 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’s fifty day moving average is $328.47 and its 200-day moving average is $301.39.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. Corporate 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.