STAR Financial Bank Cuts Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

STAR Financial Bank lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 22.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,888 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 852 shares during the period. STAR Financial Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $794,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. raised its position in Visa by 3.6% in the third quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,267 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,947,000 after purchasing an additional 888 shares during the period. Overbrook Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.9% during the third quarter. Overbrook Management Corp now owns 60,845 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,729,000 after purchasing an additional 2,820 shares during the period. Fidelity National Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,495,000. King Luther Capital Management Corp lifted its stake in Visa by 1.4% in the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 966,983 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $265,872,000 after buying an additional 13,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC now owns 89,600 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $24,636,000 after purchasing an additional 2,700 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:V opened at $307.39 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $250.03 and a 52 week high of $312.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $560.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.59, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $288.57 and a 200 day moving average of $276.84.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released 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. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Compass Point initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Macquarie upped their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

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.