WASHINGTON TRUST Co Sells 6,326 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 231,652 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,326 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 2.6% of WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest position. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Visa were worth $73,211,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 45,189.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after buying an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $268,640,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on V. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $353.73 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $356.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $325.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $299.42. The company has a market cap of $657.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.66, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Visa Company 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.