Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Decreases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 154,156 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,955 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 3.8% of Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $40,135,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. West Tower Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Financial Freedom LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 545.5% during the third quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on V. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 26th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Visa from $280.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 12th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $295.82.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $278.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,405,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,592,589. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $216.14 and a one year high of $290.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $512.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $278.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $258.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.18 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 47,311 shares of company stock worth $12,832,129. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.