Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by First Merchants Corp

First Merchants Corp lessened its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.2% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 65,916 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 111 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 0.9% of First Merchants Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $23,101,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. NewSquare Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,772,810. This trade represents a 63.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $185,576.46. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 101,098 shares of company stock valued at $36,738,526 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.9%

NYSE:V opened at $349.13 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $644.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.09, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $353.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $339.83.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Truist Financial began coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $400.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Evercore ISI began coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $372.80.

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.