Washington Trust Bank Has $1.13 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Washington Trust Bank increased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,582 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 324 shares during the period. Washington Trust Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,132,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,868,646,000 after buying an additional 718,558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after acquiring an additional 123,927 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.9 %

Visa stock opened at $336.51 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $625.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.92, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $340.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $312.82.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Visa 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.