Farmers Trust Co. Reduces Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Farmers Trust Co. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,572 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,996 shares during the period. Visa comprises 1.2% of Farmers Trust Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Farmers Trust Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,681,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Visa by 0.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $57,711,249,000 after buying an additional 1,461,575 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,253,245,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Visa in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. raised its stake in Visa by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,769,936,000 after acquiring an additional 2,429,996 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Visa by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,654,189,000 after acquiring an additional 726,299 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.2%

V opened at $347.15 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $632.42 billion, a PE ratio of 34.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $337.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $345.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $299.00 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Bank of America upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $380.00 price objective on Visa in a research note on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $402.52.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,789.09. The trade was a 7.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.