Mendota Financial Group LLC Has $177,000 Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Mendota Financial Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 560 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 94 shares during the period. Mendota Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $177,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $616,000. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at about $7,987,000. 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. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC raised its position in Visa by 5,034.0% in the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,499,000 after acquiring an additional 55,273 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $309.24 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $312.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $287.65. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $576.08 billion, a PE ratio of 31.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 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 announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Bank of America upped their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

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.