Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Nixon Peabody Trust Co.

Nixon Peabody Trust Co. lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 30.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,122 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 939 shares during the quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $671,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in Visa by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $566,153,000 after buying an additional 199,440 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the period. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $228,000. Capital Advisors Inc. OK increased its holdings in Visa by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 158,657 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $43,623,000 after buying an additional 3,146 shares during the period. Finally, Weatherly Asset Management L. P. increased its holdings in Visa by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. now owns 52,759 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $14,506,000 after buying an additional 2,059 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays upped their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $363.33 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $364.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $333.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $305.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $674.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.63, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa 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 directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was 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 this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.