Eastern Bank Has $105.58 Million Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Eastern Bank boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 334,060 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,070 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 2.0% of Eastern Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $105,576,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 45,189.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,736,958 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in Visa by 4,412.3% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,119,725,000 after acquiring an additional 4,166,905 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Visa by 4.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $306.59 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $312.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $287.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $571.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $330.85.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.