STAR Financial Bank Trims Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

STAR Financial Bank lessened its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 22.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm 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 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its position in Visa by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $632,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 64.0% during the first quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc. now owns 1,857 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $518,000 after acquiring an additional 725 shares during the period. Guardian Capital LP increased its position in Visa by 5.8% in the first quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 2,691 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $751,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Visa by 441.8% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,052,442 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $293,716,000 after buying an additional 858,180 shares during the period. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.1% in the first quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 64,463 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $17,990,000 after buying an additional 1,913 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of V opened at $307.39 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $560.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $288.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $276.84. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $250.03 and a 1 year high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.