M&T Bank Corp Sells 18,476 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

M&T Bank Corp lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 319,909 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 18,476 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $87,959,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Arjuna Capital raised its position in Visa by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $731,000. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC boosted its position in Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC grew its holdings in Visa by 5,034.0% in the third quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,499,000 after purchasing an additional 55,273 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $317.71 on Friday. 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 $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61. The firm has a market cap of $591.85 billion, a PE ratio of 32.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50 day moving average is $303.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $282.54.

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 return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Macquarie upped their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $328.41.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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.