Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Bought by Montecito Bank & Trust

Montecito Bank & Trust grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 12,023 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 230 shares during the period. Montecito Bank & Trust’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,800,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $44,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $330.20 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $331.09. The firm has a market cap of $615.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.94, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $314.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its 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. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on V. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. 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 report on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. 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 data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $334.58.

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.