Rockland Trust Co. Buys 1,381 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Rockland Trust Co. increased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 135,938 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,381 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises approximately 2.2% of Rockland Trust Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. Rockland Trust Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $42,962,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. West Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its position in shares of Visa by 79.0% in the third quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 179 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on V. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Macquarie raised their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Four investment 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. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $331.92.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $316.45 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $312.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $287.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $589.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.52, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $321.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.