APG Asset Management N.V. Purchases 1,345,291 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 484.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,622,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,345,291 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.4% of APG Asset Management N.V.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. APG Asset Management N.V.’s holdings in Visa were worth $495,290,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:V opened at $311.93 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $344.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $317.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market cap of $579.50 billion, a PE ratio of 31.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on V. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group upped their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

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.