First Bancorp Inc ME Trims Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

First Bancorp Inc ME reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,255 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 148 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.9% of First Bancorp Inc ME’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. First Bancorp Inc ME’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,345,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE:V opened at $334.16 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $335.49. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $314.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $290.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $622.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This 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 currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.52.

Visa 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.