Washington Trust Bank Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Washington Trust Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,582 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 324 shares during the quarter. Washington Trust Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,132,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group raised its position in shares of Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,663,000 after acquiring an additional 6,172 shares in the last quarter. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter worth $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on V. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price objective (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $336.51 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $340.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $312.82. The company has a market capitalization of $625.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid 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 payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.