Teacher Retirement System of Texas Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 56.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 534,548 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 191,784 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 0.6% of Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest position. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Visa were worth $168,939,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its position in Visa by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after acquiring an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at $616,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 103,855 shares of company stock worth $35,165,827. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $339.92 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $339.38 and its 200-day moving average is $312.21. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $631.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.