Eastern Bank Purchases 658 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Eastern Bank grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 111,277 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 658 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.3% of Eastern Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $28,971,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth about $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 545.5% during the 3rd quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on V. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price objective on Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.82.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $274.40 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $280.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $261.07. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The stock has a market cap of $503.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.18 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.94%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Company 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.