Public Sector Pension Investment Board Buys 25,800 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 545,739 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,800 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.8% of Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Visa were worth $150,051,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after buying an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 4,412.3% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after buying an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 26,951.9% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,587,944 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $416,788,000 after buying an additional 1,582,074 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in Visa in the third quarter worth $268,640,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price target (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $314.65 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $290.89 and a 200 day moving average of $278.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $586.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.34, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $251.61 and a fifty-two week high of $316.37.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.