Allstate Corp Increases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Allstate Corp lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3,388.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 49,669 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 48,245 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 0.5% of Allstate Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Allstate Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $15,697,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $342.62 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $343.60 and a 200 day moving average of $315.06. 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 capitalization 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly 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%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.