New York State Common Retirement Fund Trims Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,177,132 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,918 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 0.9% of New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.12% of Visa worth $688,061,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,188,862,000 after acquiring an additional 123,927 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 6.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,168,096,000 after acquiring an additional 670,590 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:V opened at $350.45 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $357.15. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $328.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $301.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $651.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.33, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.97.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted 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%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on V shares. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $354.00 to $393.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.73.

Visa Company 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.