Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,463,402 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 150,327 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 0.7% of California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.19% of Visa worth $1,094,574,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in Visa by 110.5% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 27,957 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,687,000 after purchasing an additional 14,675 shares in the last quarter. White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,278 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,726,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Circle Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.6% during the third quarter. Circle Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,910 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,625,000 after buying an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Five 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $342.62 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $343.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $315.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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. 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.