First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA Trims Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,469 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 179 shares during the quarter. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,229,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.3% in the third quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 504,472 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $138,705,000 after purchasing an additional 11,472 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 28,809 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,921,000 after buying an additional 876 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in shares of Visa by 110.5% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 27,957 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,687,000 after buying an additional 14,675 shares during the last quarter. Soros Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at $2,229,000. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,115 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,231,000 after acquiring an additional 562 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 price objective (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

Visa stock traded up $0.48 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $312.30. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 483,394 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,965,261. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $251.61 and a 52-week high of $314.50. The company has a market cap of $581.78 billion, a PE ratio of 32.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $290.37 and its 200 day moving average is $277.80.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

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.