First Merchants Corp Acquires 2,642 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

First Merchants Corp raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 71,878 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,642 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 1.5% of First Merchants Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest position. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $18,713,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV increased its stake in shares of Visa by 2.0% during the third quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,930 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $904,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Camarda Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Visa by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Camarda Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,249 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,484,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the period. Towerpoint Wealth LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $216,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC increased its stake in Visa by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC now owns 1,757 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $406,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the period. Finally, Richelieu Gestion SA bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $307,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on V shares. Raymond James raised their price objective on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $295.82.

Visa Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $276.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $508.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.14 and a 12-month high of $290.96. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $280.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $260.98.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.18 EPS. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

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.