American Trust Decreases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

American Trust reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 20,198 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 1,951 shares during the quarter. American Trust's holdings in Visa were worth $6,383,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Visa by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after buying an additional 2,785,707 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock traded up $2.82 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $362.55. The stock had a trading volume of 4,585,789 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,002,316. The stock has a market cap of $668.96 billion, a PE ratio of 36.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $342.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $332.80. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $369.15.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.51 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie dropped their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $366.13.

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.