Alberta Investment Management Corp Increases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Alberta Investment Management Corp raised its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 54.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 237,070 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 83,215 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp's holdings in Visa were worth $74,924,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth about $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Visa stock traded down $2.22 on Friday, reaching $348.27. The company had a trading volume of 6,910,504 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,472,298. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $329.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $302.03. The firm has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $357.15. 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 (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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 paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six investment 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's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $353.96.

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.