Bank of Stockton Has $4.23 Million Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bank of Stockton cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,381 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 425 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 1.3% of Bank of Stockton’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Bank of Stockton’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,229,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $348.27 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $329.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $302.66. The stock has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on V shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. 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. TD Cowen upped their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Company 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.