Employees Retirement System of Texas Reduces Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Employees Retirement System of Texas lessened its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 30.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 11,920 shares during the quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Visa were worth $8,807,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE grew its holdings in Visa by 75.8% during the 4th quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 464 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $147,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Polymer Capital Management HK LTD bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $316,000. Aristides Capital LLC grew its stake in Visa by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Aristides Capital LLC now owns 7,850 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,481,000 after acquiring an additional 850 shares in the last quarter. Ashburton Jersey Ltd increased its holdings in Visa by 35.4% during the 4th quarter. Ashburton Jersey Ltd now owns 72,831 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,018,000 after acquiring an additional 19,057 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 582,195 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $183,997,000 after purchasing an additional 12,287 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 in the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Down 7.6 %

V stock opened at $313.46 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $582.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $345.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $317.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.