Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s 7th Largest Position

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,485,091 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,613 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.9% of Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado owned approximately 0.08% of Visa worth $469,348,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after buying an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Visa by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after buying an additional 866,596 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after buying an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,171,271,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $358.17.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value 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 trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $188,186.28. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $335.50 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The firm has a market cap of $623.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.82, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $338.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $322.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.