National Pension Service Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

National Pension Service lessened its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,756,730 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 203,230 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 0.8% of National Pension Service’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. National Pension Service’s holdings in Visa were worth $871,237,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $566,153,000 after buying an additional 199,440 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the period. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $228,000. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 72,449 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $19,920,000 after buying an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Finally, Hedeker Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC now owns 24,224 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,660,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on V. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays boosted 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, UBS Group boosted their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 1.4 %

Visa stock opened at $355.56 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $360.31. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $332.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $304.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $660.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 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 analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

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.