Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Acquires 5,187 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 148,154 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,187 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 0.9% of Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Visa were worth $46,823,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on V. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $355.56 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $332.12 and a 200 day moving average of $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. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $360.31. The company has a market capitalization of $660.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.84, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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