Northwest Bancshares Inc. Trims Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Northwest Bancshares Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,999 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 63 shares during the period. Northwest Bancshares Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,199,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Unionview LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. St. Louis Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC increased its position in Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC increased its position in Visa by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,831,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.1 %

Visa stock opened at $311.85 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $245.60 and a 1-year high of $312.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $568.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $288.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $276.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

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.