Board of the Pension Protection Fund Takes $1.08 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 3,400 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,075,000. Visa accounts for 1.2% of Board of the Pension Protection Fund’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Unionview LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $368,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC increased its stake in Visa by 1.1% during the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Menard Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 6,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $316.45 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $589.51 billion, a PE ratio of 32.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $321.61. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $312.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $287.65. 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 (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on V. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.