New York State Common Retirement Fund Cuts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,177,132 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,918 shares during the period. Visa comprises 0.9% of New York State Common Retirement Fund’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Visa were worth $688,061,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Visa by 10.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $566,153,000 after purchasing an additional 199,440 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its stake 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 worth $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the third quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC now owns 66,988 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $18,418,000 after purchasing an additional 1,430 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 169,759 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $46,676,000 after purchasing an additional 1,252 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Segment Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.8% during the third quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC now owns 65,308 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $17,957,000 after purchasing an additional 1,129 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. 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 report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $350.45 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $328.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $301.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $357.15. The firm has a market cap of $651.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Visa Profile

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.