First Western Trust Bank Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

First Western Trust Bank trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 30,795 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 560 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 0.5% of First Western Trust Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. First Western Trust Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $10,934,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its stake in Visa by 14.5% in the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares during the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the period. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth about $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after purchasing an additional 3,484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc boosted its position in Visa by 43.8% during the 2nd quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,212,000 after acquiring an additional 13,912 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $339.00 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $621.32 billion, a PE ratio of 33.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $342.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $348.78. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $299.00 and a twelve month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The business’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.11%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Erste Group Bank lowered Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, UBS Group set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $830,432.64. This trade represents a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,897 shares of company stock worth $8,164,561. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.