Northwest Bancshares Inc. Decreases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Northwest Bancshares Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,999 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 63 shares during the period. Northwest Bancshares Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,199,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 4,412.3% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after purchasing an additional 4,166,905 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth about $511,321,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 26,951.9% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,587,944 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $416,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,074 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $268,640,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $311.85 on Wednesday. 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 $245.60 and a 52 week high of $312.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $288.10 and its 200 day moving average is $276.63. The company has a market cap of $568.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.05, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on V shares. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Compass Point started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.19% 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.