Farmers Trust Co. Cuts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Farmers Trust Co. trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 25,247 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 526 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.5% of Farmers Trust Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Farmers Trust Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of V. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $616,000. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth about $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5,034.0% during the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,499,000 after purchasing an additional 55,273 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on V shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $329.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’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 transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V traded up $1.22 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $312.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,332,747 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,846,737. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The company has a market cap of $582.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.16, 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. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $310.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $286.27.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors 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 dividend yield of 0.75%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

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.