Hilltop National Bank Has $1.28 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Hilltop National Bank cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 4,052 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 201 shares during the quarter. Hilltop National Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,281,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 28,734 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $9,081,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 28.6% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 5,307 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,680,000 after purchasing an additional 1,179 shares in the last quarter. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,117 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,829,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. CJM Wealth Advisers Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. CJM Wealth Advisers Ltd. now owns 3,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,237,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fortitude Family Office LLC raised its position in Visa by 69.2% in the 4th quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $818,000 after purchasing an additional 1,058 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of Visa stock traded down $4.46 on Friday, reaching $308.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,840,974 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,677,757. The company has a market capitalization of $574.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $321.61. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $311.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $286.63.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on V. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.85.

About Visa

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.