Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Trims Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,701 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,601 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,118,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of V. jvl associates llc acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $281,000. First Citizens Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 108.5% in the 4th quarter. First Citizens Financial Corp now owns 3,575 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 38,325 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,112,000 after buying an additional 5,055 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Visa by 23.4% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 4,526 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,430,000 after buying an additional 858 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded up $0.38 during trading on Friday, reaching $314.78. The stock had a trading volume of 2,265,681 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,797,721. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $309.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $285.28. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $321.61. The stock has a market cap of $586.40 billion, a PE ratio of 32.35, a P/E/G 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $329.70.

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.