Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by WASHINGTON TRUST Co

WASHINGTON TRUST Co decreased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 2.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 225,660 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 5,992 shares during the period. Visa makes up 3.0% of WASHINGTON TRUST Co's investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. WASHINGTON TRUST Co's holdings in Visa were worth $79,085,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 4.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $12,729,901,000 after buying an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,526,660,000 after buying an additional 866,596 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,356,614,000 after acquiring an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Visa by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:V traded down $1.48 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $353.99. 5,130,608 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,867,561. The firm has a market cap of $653.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.58, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $354.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $340.57. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.51 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.72%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $185,576.46. The trade was 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 46,214 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,772,810. The trade was a 63.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 92,478 shares of company stock valued at $33,717,733 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on V shares. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. UBS Group upped their target price on Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $372.84.

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.