Fifth Third Bancorp Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Fifth Third Bancorp trimmed its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 411,889 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 15,537 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Visa were worth $130,173,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 101.4% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of V stock opened at $330.20 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $331.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business’s 50 day moving average is $314.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.59. The company has a market capitalization of $615.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on V. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $335.52.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.